Golden Sixty targets 15 in row

Fourteen. That’s the number for Golden Sixty, who tries to win his 15th straight race when he makes his 2021-22 Hong Kong season debut Sunday at Sha Tin. The 5-year-old gelding glows brightest in Hong Kong’s constellation of racehorses, the jurisdiction’s reigning Horse of the Year, but is he more than a regional sensation? Maybe, maybe not, but we likely won’t learn much more about Golden Sixty from the Group 2, $610,000 Jockey Club Mile, where he will be heavily favored to defeat six rivals in a prep for the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile next month.

Golden Sixty, for what it’s worth, enters this start rated 120 in the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings. Knicks Go stands atop those rankings with a 128 rating, and, for comparison’s sake, the two American horses rated closest to Golden Sixty are Charlatan, now retired, and Jackie’s Warrior, the crack 3-year-old sprinter.

Who’s the best horse Golden Sixty ever has beaten? Likely Beauty Generation, a former Hong Kong Horse of the Year, but by the time the two crossed paths, Beauty Generation was several lengths removed from his peak. Sixth in the 2020 Hong Kong Mile was Order of Australia, upset winner of the Breeders’ Cup Mile the month before. Only those two among all Golden Sixty has vanquished would rate as legitimate international Group 1 horses.

Cleverly managed by trainer Francis Lui, Golden Sixty only once has carried more than 128 pounds in a race. Beauty Generation toted 133 pounds six times, winning three times under that burden. At his peak, the 2018-19 season, Beauty Generation won seven races by 1 1/2 lengths or more and won three times by three lengths. Only two of Golden Sixty’s 17 victories have come by as much as two lengths, though one of those was the Hong Kong Mile.

Beauty Generation dominated while racing on the front end, but Golden Sixty and the only race rider he’s ever known, Vincent Ho, go about their business from well off the leaders, leaving themselves at the mercy of pace and trip. Several times, slow fractions have nearly gotten Golden Sixty beat, but thanks to a devastating kick – Golden Sixty has gone his final 400 meters in less than 22 seconds on many occasions – the gelding has found a way to win all 18 of his starts save his fourth, where he refused to relax after pressing the lead and faded to finish 10th.

Golden Sixty, in fact, regularly pulls harder than would be ideal, a sign of immaturity, and it’s not impossible that this season Golden Sixty could hit an even higher level if he can improve his professionalism. Lui has put three training races into Golden Sixty, who has finished first in each of them, going to the lead in a straightcourse turf trial, then swooping from behind in his two practice dirt races. The son of Medaglia d’Oro made a great impression in all those trials and clearly will be formidable Sunday.

Among his six rivals, Waikuku stands to improve in his second race this season, but even at his very best, Waikuku isn’t a match for an in-form Golden Sixty. Both carry 128 pounds, five more than the others in a race with set weights.

The Jockey Club Mile is one of three stakes linked to races on the Hong Kong International Races card on Dec. 12. The Group 2, $610,000 Jockey Club Cup, which also drew seven entrants, is a 2,000-meter race, same as the Hong Kong Cup. Panfield, the most interesting horse in this group, could have designs on the 2,400-meter Hong Kong Vase next month. Panfield jumped into the Four-Year-Old Classic series last season in the final leg, the Hong Kong Derby, at 2,000 meters the longest race in the series, finishing third. He ended his campaign with a victory in the Group 1 Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup over 2,400 meters and, promisingly, won the Group 2 Sha Tin Trophy over 1,600 meters to start his current campaign. Glorious Dragon comes out of a fifth-place finish in the Group 3 Sa Sa Ladies Purse, a race in which he never had any room to run through the homestretch.

The Group 2, $610,000 Jockey Club Sprint drew a highly competitive field of 10, including Group 1 winner Hot King Prawn, who hasn’t started since March and is likely to need this start to shake off rust. Wellington, Sky Field, and the lightly raced Courier Wonder are other prominent entrants.

First post for this card is 11:45 p.m. Eastern on Saturday night. You can catch all the action at DRFBets.com.