FWD Champions Day: Hong Kong preview including Golden Sixty going for glory

It’s a simple question and those who have had a front row seat to his heroics sing from the same hymn sheet when asked for their most vivid recollection.

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has admired a wide range of exceptional horses during almost two decades at the helm of Hong Kong racing and the HKJC CEO has no doubt that one quality separates Francis Lui’s gelding from all the rest.

“This horse has the ability to quicken like a jet fighter whatever the pace,” he says. “It is an almost unique quality that resonates with anyone who witnesses it, something that can hit you on a really emotional level, and that creates sporting moments to treasure.”

Lead race caller Mark McNamara’s pitch high above the Sha Tin grandstand makes him perfectly positioned to echo the “electric turn of speed” angle combined with “the way the crowd lifts with him to raise the roof.”

Zac Purton is one of very few men who knows how it feels to beat Golden Sixty and the six-time champ describes his nemesis as “a once in a generation horse with the ability to keep delivering that devastating finish time and again”

And Jenny Chapman draws on her experience as one of the world’s foremost paddock analysts to describe “the striking visual impression when Vincent Ho asks him to respond.

“The way he he pins his ears back with sheer determination to produce that amazing turn of foot is what has always set him apart,” she adds. “It’s the mark of a true champion.”

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One man and his horse

Or, in this case, champions.

A personal favourite Golden Sixty memory relates to the withering run he produced to complete a clean sweep of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series in the 2020 BMW Hong Kong Derby.

Pandemic restrictions meant masks were mandatory for a Derby run behind closed doors but Ho sensed that something special was afoot on a day that propelled him into the international spotlight.

A first international G1 success followed a few weeks later when Southern Legend – trained by his mentor Caspar Fownes – dethroned the old king Beauty Generation in the FWD Champions Mile.

Japanese globetrotter Loves Only You provided another landmark G1 success in the QEII Cup twelve months later but the dark brown gelding branded C238 has provided a Golden thread through a 30-race career which has combined incredible highs with enough setbacks to keep any Hollywood scriptwriter busy.

That perfect 2019-2020 season led to another flawless 2020-2021 campaign which featured a commanding first LONGINES Hong Kong Mile win and a narrow defeat of stablemate More Than This in the FWD Champions Mile.

The 2021-2022 season delivered two shock defeats, the first against Waikuku and Purton in the Stewards’ Cup and the second when his speed was blunted on an unusually wet track in Russian Emperor’s Hong Kong Gold Cup.

Purton stole a tactical edge again when California Spangle foiled a third Hong Kong Mile bid in 2022 but Golden Sixty has mastered the art of bouncing back and his list of accomplishments while cementing his place among the World’s Best Racehorses list is without precedent.

A running total of 26 wins from thirty runs under the same devoted rider; ten Group 1 successes; three Hong Kong Miles and three Champions Miles; two memorable defeats of the mighty Romantic Warrior in the 2023 Stewards’ Cup and Hong Kong Gold Cup; three consecutive Horse of the Year titles; and a world record HK$165.8m in prize money.

But, in some ways, the less tangible elements of Golden Sixty’s career echo every bit as clearly as those contained in black and white.

Giant posters festooned all over the city honour a horse and rider who emerged at the start of a pandemic and still stand tall after it, while a blizzard of social media images have exemplified the deep bond of trust that has underpinned the relationship between man and horse through the ages.

FWD Champions Day provides new challenges

But the bid for a fourth consecutive FWD Champions Mile at Sha Tin this Sunday presents an old horse with new challenges.

Blue skies finally returned to Hong Kong late on Thursday afternoon but this week’s deluge, with further rain to come, could yet result in the sort of yielding surface that undid Golden Sixty on his sole previous encounter with a wet track.

And then we come to the delicate decision about when the Golden era should come to an end.

The list of Hong Kong legends who went out on a low note is long – including Silent Witness, Sacred Kingdom River Verdon, Viva Pataca and Ambitious Dragon - while master milers Good Ba Ba, Able Friend and Beauty Generation were all winless in their final season.

Golden Sixty’s connections seem unlikely to risk similar regression but, one way or another, an important decision will have to be made after Sunday’s showpiece.

Defeat might persuade owner Stanley Chan that it is time for the horse who has lit up the autumn of his racing life to head to his retirement home in Japan.

Even a hard-earned success might result in a similar conversation, while another impressive win could prompt talk of a final chapter designed to culminate with a historic fourth LONGINES Hong Kong Mile success in December.

But why speculate on the future when what lies close to hand is so rich in promise?

Sunday’s Champions Mile was already a compelling proposition before Golden Sixty sustained the first notable leg problem of his career in early January, while another dramatic sub-plot was added when Vincent sustained neck and hand injuries in a shuddering fall on the Sha Tin dirt a few weeks later.

But the mood in the camp at morning trackwork has been marked by a quiet confidence and the memory of that superb third HKIR success last December – subsequently polished at a high level by all four of his nearest pursuers – suggests that Father Time can be kept at bay for a little while longer.

And so fused together in body and soul, the golden couple of Hong Kong racing will return from adversity in the hope of engaging jet fighter mode again on Sunday.

The sun is slowly setting on four years of sustained brilliance but let’s enjoy it while we can. You could live another hundred years and not witness another Golden era to match this one.

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