History made as Golden Sixty wins third Champions Mile

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Golden Sixty (Medaglia D’Oro) cemented his place as Hong Kong’s most prolific Group 1 winner after his record-setting third Champions Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) triumph at Sha Tin yesterday.

Equal with Beauty Generation’s (Road To Rock) mark of eight elite-level wins prior to yesterday, Golden Sixty – trained by Francis Lui – added his Champions Mile wins in 2021 and 2022.

Making it an unmatched nine Group 1s for the seven-year-old, jockey Vincent Ho also sealed a fourth Champions Mile win in succession to become the contest’s leading rider after breaking his deadlock with Brett Prebble.

Adding to his brilliance in front of a packed 49,496 crowd at Sha Tin, Golden Sixty – based on current exchange rates – is ranked first for career earnings globally with HK$147,930,600 (approx. AU$28.518 million), while Winx’s all-time AU$26,451,174 equates to HK$137.375 million.

“Thank you to all of the racing fans and, of course, I am really grateful to be on this horse again. He’s such a superstar and I’m just very grateful and very happy for Golden Sixty of course. Now he looks around and enjoys the crowds and his home turf,” Ho said.

“We got a sneak through the inside, one off and sort of in second position. I told myself before this race to try and enjoy every moment with Golden Sixty because he is seven now and we don’t know when he is going to retire but it’s the best way to enjoy every single step with him.

“I’m nothing without him. All of the credit goes to Golden Sixty,” Ho said.

The winner of 25 races from 29 starts, Golden Sixty landed his third Group 1 crown this term in a time of 1 minute 33.34 seconds ahead of Beauty Joy (Sebring) and California Spangle (Starspangledbanner), respectively.

“It’s always my honour to be on him. I’m happy for the horse and happy for the crowds that come to support him. He’s just an amazing horse,” Ho said. “He’s going as well as ever. There’s no sign of him dropping in performance.”

Stepping away cleanly under Ho, Hong Kong’s two-time Horse of the Year steadily stole ground mid-race and between runners before taking command with roughly 400 metres left to run.

“The only thing I can say is happy. He’s such a good horse with a good fighting heart. He gives me confidence,” Lui said. “Vincent had his own plan, I didn’t disturb him. Before the race, we didn’t talk about how to run because he knows this horse well and I don’t have to teach him.”

Speaking of longevity, Lui declared that Golden Sixty’s future runs could be spaced even further apart and while a shot at Hong Kong’s Triple Crown remains open in next month’s Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) on May 28, Lui expects Golden Sixty’s next major target to be a third win in December’s Hong Kong Mile (Gr 1, 1600m).

“Now we just keep a little bit longer in between races, before we could keep racing – even some of the Group 3 races – but now we just pick the Group 1 races,” Lui said.

The official margin was one and a half lengths. Golden Sixty – rated 131 in Hong Kong – was sent around as a dominant 1.4 favourite to win, his shortest quote across all of his five runs this season.

Of Beauty Joy’s effort, his rider Hugh Bowman said: “Delighted, no surprise to see him do that. He enjoyed that even tempo. It wasn’t frantic, it was consistent, which is what he needs.”

California Spangle led the race early before fading to third under Zac Purton who said: “He ran well, he just got annoyed the whole race. They were at him and he sort of didn’t get a chance to switch off.”

Golden Sixty’s previous Group 1 wins this term came in the Stewards’ Cup (Gr 1, 1600m) and Hong Kong Gold Cup (Gr 1, 2000m) – the first two legs of Hong Kong’s Triple Crown.

Prior to Golden Sixty’s Champions Mile three-peat, Ho bagged a first win in the race in 2020 aboard Southern Legend (Not A Single Doubt).