Golden Sixty looks unbeatable in Stewards Cup at Sha Tin

Sixty, already rated No. 1, goes for 12 straight Sunday at Sha Tin.

Translation, for those not attuned to the Hong Kong racing scene: Golden Sixty, the top-rated horse in Hong Kong, brings an 11-race winning streak into the Group 1 Stewards Cup. The 1,600-meter race is run at level weights, Golden Sixty and jockey Vincent Ho have a fine draw – post 6 in just an eight-horse field – and anything less than an odds-on victory Sunday will come as a serious surprise.

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The Stewards Cup is one of two Group 1s on the card, along with the 1,200-meter Centenary Sprint Cup, both races worth about $1.5 million. Also part of a program that begins at midnight Eastern – catch all the action and wagering at DRFBets.com – is the Hong Kong Classic Mile, first leg of Hong Kong’s iteration of the Triple Crown, the Four-Year-Old Classic Series.

Golden Sixty, a 5-year-old Australian-bred by Medaglia d’Oro, has emerged as a world-class racehorse. Campaigned only in Hong Kong, where he is trained by Hong Kong native Frankie Lor, Golden Sixty won his first three starts during spring 2019 before finishing second in his final race of the 2018-19 Hong Kong season. That’s the only blemish on the gelding’s record. Last season, Golden Sixty went 7 for 7, racing at distances between 1,200 meters (about six furlongs) and 2,000 meters (about 1 1/4 miles) while sweeping the Four-Year-Old Classic series, and his powers only have heightened this season. Golden Sixty casually won his first three starts, in September, October, and November, before dominating the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile, winning by two lengths. There were international runners in that race but there is none in the Stewards Cup, race 7, where Golden Sixty looks beyond formidable.

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The Centenary Sprint is an entirely different kind of race, as the Hong Kong sprint division continues to lack anything like a clear hierarchy. Hot King Prawn won well in November when he captured the Jockey Club Sprint but got nothing as the 2-1 favorite in the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint. Jolly Banner and Wishful Thinker finished second and fourth, respectively, in the HK Sprint, a race dominated by closers. Both return Sunday lacking consistency in performance. The pace in this race could be tepid; likely front-runners Big Party and Computer Patch merit consideration at a price.

Sky Darci, meanwhile, is top-rated and the likely favorite for the Hong Kong Classic Mile. From the barn of leading trainer Caspar Fownes, Sky Darci began his season with a pair of wins at Happy Valley, Hong Kong’s city track, before shifting to Sha Tin, where he won a Class 1 handicap and finished second last out in the Group 3 Chinese Club Challenge Handicap. Sky Darci, it has to be noted, was very favorably weighted in both starts and picks up 11 pounds Sunday, racing, like his 13 rivals, under 126 pounds.

Excellent Proposal enters after a throwing a clunker Jan. 10. The Fownes-trained Enrich Delight showed spark finishing third in the same race, and there are a host of other Classic Mile entrants with the potential for significant Sunday improvement.