Team Ka Ying Rising is already plotting its Group One The Everest (1,200m) defence and after the scenes of Saturday afternoon, why wouldn’t they be?

Ka Ying Rising fever took Sydney by storm, with a modern-day record 50,167 people flocking to Randwick, and the presence of the world’s best sprinter in the world’s richest turf race caught the imagination of the punters, with more than HK$83 million bet with the World Pool to set another high-water mark.

That benefited both the Jockey Club and the Australian Turf Club (ATC), with the latter hopeful there is plenty more to come.

By allowing the Jockey Club to use its The Everest slot for Ka Ying Rising, the ATC is hopeful it will be looked upon favourably when the possibility to host additional World Pool meetings presents itself in the future.

The Jockey Club has secured the ATC’s slot for two years, with the potential for a third, and at the time of the agreement, executive director of racing, Andrew Harding, stated that “in future years, we will use the slot to either facilitate a Hong Kong horse running or to target Australian or New Zealand sprinters to come onto the Hong Kong International Races [HKIR] after The Everest”.

It’s not impossible Ka Ying Rising occupies the slot in all three years.

That doesn’t mean the Jockey Club won’t be seriously hoping for the presence of bigger-name Australian horses at its flagship HKIR meeting, starting from this year’s event on December 14.

There seems little doubt Jockey Club officials, including head of racing product Greg Carpenter, would have been doing their best to plant the seed among connections of Australia’s top sprinters during The Everest week.

Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has voiced his disappointment in the lack of Australian interest in HKIR on multiple occasions since the pandemic.

The presence of Melbourne Cup winner Without A Fight and the talented Antino last year went some way to assuaging his frustrations.

Australian racing is known as much for its top sprinters as anything, however, and you have to go back to Sea Siren in 2012 to find a speedster trained Down Under who jumped at single figures in the Group One Hong Kong Sprint (1,200m).

The timing of HKIR isn’t ideal, of course, coming off the back of a stacked Australian spring brimming with prize money.

But Engelbrecht-Bresges spoke about the need for global competition in the aftermath of Ka Ying Rising’s remarkable The Everest success and made it clear how pleased he was that Hong Kong had played a role in making the weekend what it was.

“It’s extremely important to show that Hong Kong is a global city and that we have one of the best horses in the world and that we can help create a global atmosphere – because the atmosphere today is absolutely astonishing and fascinating – and this is how we want to lift global racing,” he said.

There will be a certain level of expectation that this is now reciprocated and a top Australian sprinter squaring off against Ka Ying Rising would create huge interest.

Maybe the Ciaron Maher-trained Jimmysstar, who was only a length and a half behind Ka Ying Rising on Saturday, could be the one. Maher’s Recommendation was the only Australian runner in last year’s Hong Kong Sprint, after all.

On the flip side is the very real possibility that the Aussies don’t want to go anywhere near Ka Ying Rising until next October.

Hopefully connections aren’t as cautious as the fixed-odds bookmakers who are offering just $2.25 for Ka Ying Rising to go back to back in The Everest.