Sixty Still Golden Despite Crawling Pace

Champion Hong Kong miler Golden Sixty pushed the heartrate to 100 in Hong Kong yesterday afternoon, narrowly claiming his second Group 1 in the Stewards’ Cup, the first leg of the Triple Crown. Sent off at $1.10 and held up under regular rider Vincent Ho, the explosive Group 1 Hong Kong Mile winner had to work harder than ever to make it back-to-back wins at the top level, as Zac Purton and Ka Ying Star took them along at a snail’s pace. Though maybe not as visually impressive as his win at the International Races in December, making up late ground in such a slowly run affair confirmed his class, while jockey Ho also reported that his saddle slipped coming into the home straight. “They went pretty slow all the way, actually, so he was a little keen and he was pulling a little bit and then everyone sprinted home,” Ho said. “I knew I would still get there, but it was quite close.” Golden Sixty has now won an incredible 12 races in a row, and will be looking to extend that to 13 with next month’s Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (Group 1) looking the likely target. That contest is the second leg of the Triple Crown and will see the son of Medaglia d’Oro step back up to 2000m for the first time since winning last year’s BMW Hong Kong Derby.

A dawdling paced forced Golden Sixty to work extra hard