Golden Sixty's Hong Kong win streak ends at 16 as Waikuku takes Stewards' Cup
Golden Sixty finally took silver, his Hong Kong winning streak snapped at 16 with a second-place finish to Waikuku on Sunday in the Group 1, $1.54 million Stewards' Cup at Sha Tin Racecourse.
Twenty-eight months and 2 1/2 Hong Kong racing seasons passed since Golden Sixty didn’t win a start, but, left in an impossible position too far behind a very good horse, Waikuku, who had tracked a moderate pace, Golden Sixty’s furious rally fell three-quarters of a length short.
Waikuku, with Zac Purton riding for trainer John Size, snapped his own four-race losing streak while winning for the first time in four starts this Hong Kong season. Purton settled Waikuku in second behind pacesetting Healthy Happy, took the lead in midstretch, and had enough to hold clear Golden Sixty.
“I was really happy with the way the race was run,” Purton said. “He was in a lovely rhythm and I knew he was going to give me a kick, but with Golden Sixty in the race, you’re never home until you pass the post.”
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Golden Sixty did all he could as an equine athlete to keep his remarkable streak alive, but with jockey Vincent Ho taking a stern hold of his mount after breaking from post 1, Golden Sixty found himself alternating for last place down the backstretch run with Sky Darci. Midway around the Stewards' Cup’s one turn, Golden Sixty still trailed the leader by about nine lengths and Waikuku by about eight. Ho steered Golden Sixty to the outside for a homestretch run, Golden Sixty going his third 400-meter sectional in 22.46, co-fastest in the field, but even a final 400 meters in 21.95 was not enough to preserve the winning streak.
“It was just the draw,” trainer Francis Lui told Hong Kong Jockey Club publicity staff. “The way the race was run, he needed to be closer, but from the inside it wasn’t possible today.”
Golden Sixty, during his undefeated period, won five Group 1s, among those two renewals of the Hong Kong Mile, and two seasons ago swept the 4-year-old classic series, Hong Kong’s closest approximation to the Triple Crown, stretching his stamina out to 2,000 meters and winning the Hong Kong Derby.
In a weight-for-age race in which all runners carried 126 pounds, Waikuku clocked 1:34.82 for the 1,600 meters. The 7-year-old Irish-bred is by Harbour Watch out of London Plane, by Danehill Dancer. And after the Stewards' Cup, his run of Hong Kong wins stands at one – one more than Golden Sixty.
Stronger muscles to Centenary Sprint surprise
Stronger posted a 17-1 upset Sunday in the Group 1, $1.54 Centenary Sprint Cup, illuminating the unsettled nature of the Hong Kong sprint division.
Stronger ended a 13-race losing skein and won his first Group 1 by a head over Sky Field, the top two home coming from last and second-last in a 1,200-meter dash in which the pace collapsed. Old hand Hot King Prawn was another three-quarters of a length back in third.
This also was a first Group 1 for trainer Douglas Whyte, South African by birth but a 13-time champion jockey in Hong Kong. Vincent Ho rode the winner, a 5-year-old Australian-bred by Not a Single Doubt out of Star Pupil, by Starcraft.