Hong Kong: Golden Sixty's victory streak climbs to 12

Twelve seconds per furlong: That’s the standard pace people have in mind when they consider a Thoroughbred horse race. But winning his 12th race in a row required Golden Sixty going far, far faster than that.

Caught at the back of the field behind a glacial pace, Golden Sixty sprouted wings the second half of the Group 1, $1.55 million Stewards' Cup to beat Southern Legend by a head at Sha Tin in Hong Kong on Sunday.

Golden Sixty’s finishing kick was as improbable as the margin of victory was narrow. His final 400 meters (about a quarter-mile) went in 21.80 seconds and Golden Sixty got his last 800 meters in a stunning 44.18 seconds. The par time for a 1,600-meter Group stakes race at Sha Tin is 45.90, showing just how fast Golden Sixty finished to beat a horse, Southern Legend, who tracked a pace more than one second slower than par for the first 800 meters.

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Complicating matters, jockey Vincent Ho said Golden Sixty’s saddle slipped slightly at the 300-meter mark. “Top horses need to overcome all different kind of circumstances,” Ho told Hong Kong Jockey Club publicity.

Golden Sixty, who pulled harder than usual while held up behind the pokey pace, completed his 1,600 meters in 1:33.35. Ka Ying Star, who set the pace, held for third over Waikuku, who also closed furiously in a good performance to finish fourth.

Golden Sixty was the overwhelming Stewards’ Cup favorite after winning 11 races in a row, most recently jogging to victory in the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile. Trained by Francis Lui, 5-year-old Golden Sixty, by Medaglia d’Oro out of Gaudeamus, by Distorted Humor, is likely to try extending his winning streak to 13 in the Feb. 21 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup. That race is contested at 2,000 meters, about 1 1/4 miles, a distance Golden Sixty has tried just once, when winning the Hong Kong Derby in March 2020.

Legendary Hong Kong trainer John Size ruled much of the rest of Sunday’s action, winning the Group 1 Centenary Sprint Cup with Hot King Prawn and finishing one-two in the Hong Kong Classic Mile, first leg of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series, with Excellent Proposal and Lucky Express. Size also sent out Sight Success to win the nightcap, a Class 3 handicap, by two lengths, Sight Success now an easy winner in his three career starts.

Joao Moreira rode Sight Success and gave Hot King Prawn a perfect pocket trip as the 6-year-old gelding, long one of Hong Kong’s top sprinters, notched an overdue first Group 1 win. Hot King Prawn, by Denman out of De Chorus, by Unbridled’s Song, debuted in May 2017 and looked like a bright budding star winning nine of his first 10 starts and finishing second in his lone loss. But a case of colic late in 2019 required surgery, and when Hot King Prawn returned to racing 10 months later he was merely very good, not great.

Twice third and once second in Group 1 sprints, Hot King Prawn could only finish seventh this past December in the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint before bouncing back Sunday with one of his better races. The race’s outcome became apparent as soon as Moreira spun Hot King Prawn out for room in upper stretch and the gelding accelerated into contention. He won by 1 3/4 lengths, clocking 1:08.01 for the 1,200 meters, as Regency Legend won a photo over Big Party for second. Size now has won the Centenary Sprint four years in a row.

In the Hong Kong Classic Mile, Excellent Proposal rebounded from a superficially subpar performance in a Jan. 10 Class 2 handicap to post a three-quarters-length win Sunday in a race restricted to 4-year-olds. Excellent Proposal won his first three starts of the 2020 – 20201 Hong Kong season before Size, with this series in mind, gave him a break. Size said Excellent Proposal’s 11th-place finish two weeks earlier came in a race designed purely as a prep, and indeed, a different horse showed up Sunday.

Racing ninth with about 400 meters remaining, Excellent Proposal found his best stride on the far outside under Moreira to get up in plenty of time, clocking 1:33.81 for 1,600 meters. The Australian jockey Blake Shinn, who has struggled to find Hong Kong winners this winter, was aboard Excellent Proposal. Shinn rode 12 winners during the summer of 2017 when based at Arlington Park.

Lucky Express just nipped Tourbillon Diamond, who ran just as well as the winner after twice finding trouble. Tourbillon Diamond and a couple others were hampered when Enrich Delight broke down and was pulled up approaching the far turn, and in upper stretch had to wait and wait for a hole to open. The gelding has good Australian form over longer distances and could be a major player in the Hong Kong Classic Cup and the Hong Kong Derby.

The first two finishers are headed to the 1,800-meter Classic Cup next month, Size said. Excellent Proposal is by Exceed and Excel out of the Pivotal mare Procrastination, and added a fourth Hong Kong win to the three victories he posted in Australia before being privately purchased and exported.