Finally defeated, hardly disgraced, Golden Sixty can start a new winning streak Sunday at Sha Tin in the Group 1, $1.54 million Hong Kong Gold Cup.  For the first time in 16 starts and 31 months, Golden Sixty starts after losing a race. Overwhelmingly favored to win his 17th straight start, Golden Sixty met defeat Jan. 23 in the Group 1 Stewards Cup, beaten three-quarters of a length by Waikuku while racing at level weights.   Did Golden Sixty take a step back in his third start of the 2021-22 Hong Kong racing season, leading to his shock defeat? Probably he did not.   His jockey, Vincent Ho, didn’t shy away from taking blame for the loss. Ho conceded he let his mount fall too far behind a tepid pace and should have stuck to his path near the inside rail rather than coming wide for a stretch run. Waikuku, a very good horse in his own right, had coasted along just off the leader and got a major jump on Golden Sixty, whose blazing 21.95-second final 400 meters still wasn’t fast enough to land a win.   Racing after defeat isn’t the only change for Golden Sixty, a 6-year-old Australian-bred trained by Francis Lui: Eight of Golden Sixty’s last nine starts came at 1,600 meters, about one mile, but he tries 2,000 meters, about 1 1/4 miles, in the Gold Cup. Lui has flatly said that Golden Sixty has no issue going the longer trip, and there’s evidence supporting that claim. In his first start at the trip, the Hong Kong Derby in March 2020, Golden Sixty was 11th at the 400-meter marker but closed in 21.83 to get home by a neck. Start no. 2 at the distance came in the 2021 renewal of the Gold Cup, which turned into a very close call, Golden Sixty up by a nose over a generally inferior foe, Furore.   Golden Sixty has kept to his regular, steady training pattern since the Stewards Cup, a course of exercise that included a sharp barrier trial on Feb. 8. But if Golden Sixty is to make it three wins from three 2,000 meter starts, he’ll have to overcome post 11, a tough draw in a two-turn race that starts just before the first bend.  :: Hong Kong: Free PPs, picks, analysis, replays, and live streaming Were the Gold Cup a handicap it might be easier to tab a potential upset candidate, but even the horses rated far below Golden Sixty carry 126 pounds, just like he. Zebrowski, the lowest-rated horse in the race at 106, might hold some appeal under such circumstances, a fairly lightly raced horse in the best form of his career and stretching from 1,800 meters to a longer trip that might suit him. Sky Darci won the 2021 Hong Kong Derby in his most recent 2,000-meter start, but he’s likely just not good enough. And the horses rated closest to Golden Sixty, More Than This and, even more so, Panfield, don’t have the recent form that suggests they might step forward.   Meanwhile, Golden Sixty’s vanquisher, Waikuku, runs earlier on the card in the Group 1, $1.54 million Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup, another level-weights race, this one contested around one turn at 1,400 meters. Waikuku, with Zac Purton riding for John Size, breaks from post 3 and looks formidable. Waikuku has a 4-0-1 record from five Hong Kong starts at this distance, including a decisive victory in the 2021 Silver Jubilee Cup. Waikuku popped back into his best form beating Golden Sixty last out and need only maintain something close to that performance level to defeat seven rivals.  Sky Field holds some interest as an upset candidate. In strong form through a five-start campaign so far this Hong Kong season, Sky Field hasn’t raced over a distance as far as 1,400 meters since he closed strongly to defeat Sky Darci in the Group 3 Premier Cup Handicap last June. But even a showing like that one probably wouldn’t prove strong enough to take down Waikuku, who just last month took down Hong Kong’s best horse.  First post for this 10-race program is midnight Eastern, and you can catch all the action at DRFBets.com.