Golden Sixty calling it a season, will skip next Group 1

On Monday, eight horses remained in the entries for the Group 1 Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup on Sunday at Sha Tin Racecourse, but the best horse in Hong Kong no longer is among them.

Golden Sixty’s connections, with little fanfare, evidently have elected to call a halt to the gelding’s 2020-21 racing season, awaiting the 2021-22 season to try and extend Golden Sixty’s winning streak to 15.

The Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup is a 1 1/2-mile race and while Golden Sixty has knocked out a couple wins over about 1 1/4 miles, he’s a miler at heart, and already has raced seven times this season, winning four Group 1s. The Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup is the final leg in the three-race series considered Hong Kong’s Triple Crown, but that trio of races has a most tenuous linkage.

:: Hong Kong: Free PPs, picks, analysis, replays, and live streaming

Five-year-old Golden Sixty, trained by Francis Lui, has a career record of 17 wins from 18 starts. Last season he swept Hong Kong’s best-known three-race series, the 4-year-old Classic Series.

Fantastic Treasure still unbeaten

Three-year-old Fantastic Treasure’s star continued to rise this past Sunday at Sha Tin, where he stormed to a three-quarter-length win in the Class 2 Crystal Handicap over 1,400 meters. Fantastic Treasure only launched his career in February and comes to the end of his first Hong Kong season unbeaten in five starts, adding Sunday’s Class 2 tally to the two wins at Class 4 and two more at Class 3 he notched while rising through the Hong Kong ranks. Trained by David Hayes, Fantastic Treasure began his career rated just 52 but with another seven-point bump following his latest triumph he is now pegged at 94. Hayes said Fantastic Treasure will be aimed toward the 4-year-old Classic Series next season, though that series doesn’t get underway until early in 2022.

Happy Valley Wednesday card

Spontaneous already has put together a successful Hong Kong campaign but can add a fourth win from five starts this season in the seventh race Wednesday at Happy Valley.

:: Download DRF's Guide to Betting Hong Kong Racing

Spontaneous went winless from four starts last season racing a Sha Tin but has been kept to Happy Valley starts this term, winning three times in four appearances. He’s won his two most recent starts by 1 1/4 lengths, carrying 133 pounds to victory April 14 facing Class 4 competition. Zac Purton, aboard for both the recent victories, retains the mount as Spontaneous, who has good tactical speed, is weighted 125 for Wednesday’s contest.

This is the first of three Class 3 races, for horses rated 80 to 60, that conclude Wednesday’s nine-program. The last of them is contested over 1,800 meters and includes Superbella, who took a huge forward step beating Class 4 foes over the same Happy Valley trip on April 8. A 4 3/4-length win got Superbella a 10-point rating rise but the 5-year-old gelding and leading rider Joao Moreira receive as much as 14 pounds Wednesday moving up to Class 3 competition.

First post for the card is 6:45 a.m. Eastern. You can catch all the action at DRFBets.com.