Jockey Zac Purton gave Ka Ying Rising a “pass mark” and trainer David Hayes walked away confident the world’s best sprinter will improve significantly after his third-placed finish in a 1,000m trial in Sydney on Tuesday morning.

In a star-studded trial featuring a host of Ka Ying Rising’s expected opponents in October 18’s The Everest (1,200m) at Randwick, he led out wide early before striding out down the middle of the track and finishing a close third under minimal urging from Purton.

“It was a good, solid trial but he did need it,” said Hayes. “He blew a few cobwebs out and he’ll really come on a lot for that.

“He’ll have a nice gallop on Monday and he’ll be right for the big one. He’s about 20lb above his racing weight and I’ll expect it to come down a bit in the next week.

“Hopefully he’ll improve from the experience. He’s had a look at Randwick now. He hasn’t been away from Sha Tin for a long time – that’s his only track – so to have a look around here was very, very good for him.”

Ka Ying Rising will be racing for the first time since his Class One HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup (1,200m) victory on September 7 and Purton was under no illusion to the task at hand for a galloper who has won his past 13 races on the trot.

“Pass mark, needs to improve,” said the jockey. “He hasn’t had a run for about a month and he hasn’t done too much serious work in that amount of time, so it was the first time he’s done anything competitive in a while.

“The track was a little bit soft for him. He’s not totally at home on that ground. But I thought he trialled well enough. I think he’ll come on a bit from that.

“Obviously, it’s going to be a competitive race. The horses in Australia are peaking at the right time, so hopefully we can draw a good gate, get a dry track and I’m sure he’ll improve a bit off that.

“He had a big blow after the trial and he’ll have another 200m to run in The Everest, [but] he’s got 10 days to do a bit more work and improve – hopefully he can.”