The dust is settling on a big opening week of the 2025-26 Hong Kong racing season and it seemed like as good a time as any to run through a few things to look out for this term.

The return of the Warrior

It’s now been over five months since Romantic Warrior raced and the clock is ticking if trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing wants to get the world’s highest-earning racehorse ready for a tilt at a fourth straight Group One Hong Kong Cup (2,000m) victory in December. Last seen running a brave second in April’s Group One Dubai Turf (1,800m), Romantic Warrior had a screw inserted into his left fore fetlock in May but he has started galloping again in the past week. Shum is likely to want to run Romantic Warrior in November’s Group Two Jockey Club Cup (2,000m) before taking aim at the Hong Kong Cup and he looks set to be back at the trials sooner rather than later. Romantic Warrior isn’t the only galloper Shum will be nursing back to health this season either, with Group One Irish Derby (2,400m) runner-up Serious Contender listed on the Jockey Club website as having suffered a right fore fetlock injury and expected to face months on the sidelines.

Ka Ying’s climb

Everything has gone perfectly so far and connections will be praying Ka Ying Rising gets every chance to show the world just how good he is in The Everest (1,200m) in Sydney next month. Currently in quarantine in Hong Kong after dominating last weekend’s Class One HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup (1,200m), Ka Ying Rising will soon jet to Australia for the world’s richest race on turf. The travel, Australia’s best and the potential for wet weather all stand between Ka Ying Rising and history, but it really is hard to see anything fazing the globe’s top sprinter based on what we’ve seen so far.

Japan at HKIR

Long an imposing figure at the Hong Kong International Races (HKIR), it will be interesting to see whether Japan has its usual presence at the 2025 edition of the city’s biggest meeting. Questions were raised in Japan after the death of the mighty Liberty Island in April’s Group One QE II Cup (2,000m), with Northern Farm left asking “what if?” after connections weren’t consulted before the star mare was euthanised on the Sha Tin track after suffering serious ligament damage. Just what impact the incident – which the Jockey Club confirmed it would be reviewing – has on the quantity and quality of the Japanese raiding party at this year’s HKIR remains to be seen.

Sevens week at the Valley

It’s been a long time coming but it seems rugby fans will finally get to experience Happy Wednesday at Happy Valley during the week of the Hong Kong Sevens. Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said in March that he was “cautiously optimistic” the Jockey Club could broker a deal with the Hong Kong Football Club (HKFC) to hold midweek racing at Happy Valley during Sevens week, rather than reverting to a soulless Sha Tin dirt meeting to make way for the HKFC 10s in the Happy Valley infield. It is believed some form of deal has been done and there is a Happy Valley meeting scheduled for Wednesday, April 15 – two days before the Sevens kicks off – meaning the city circuit could be in for one of its liveliest parties yet.

Purton’s pursuit of 2,000

There will, of course, be great interest taken in the progress of the jockeys’ and trainers’ premierships, but a nice little subplot for the season will be Zac Purton’s pursuit of yet another record. Fresh off passing Douglas Whyte’s all-time Hong Kong win mark of 1,813 last season, Purton sits on 1,884 victories after an opening-day five-timer and a single success at the Valley on Wednesday night. All being well, it will be this season that the eight-time champion jockey becomes the first to hit 2,000 successes in the city. More interesting is how quickly he can do it.