Ahead of his bid to capture a record third successive G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) at Sha Tin on Sunday week (30 April), Golden Sixty left both trainer Francis Lui and jockey Vincent Ho satisfied following his effort in a barrier trial this morning (Tuesday, 18 April).<\/p>
Successful in the 2021 and 2022 editions of the HK$20 million race under Ho, Hong Kong\u2019s champion coasted around the 1200m Sha Tin dirt course in 1m 10.42s at the tail of the field in sixth position, while Voyage Bubble edged out Drombeg Banner to lead the eight-runner group home in 1m 09.93s.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cSame as usual, we\u2019re happy and even Vincent after he came back and passed me, I asked him and he said he was also happy with the trial,\u201d Lui said.<\/p>
No horse has won the FWD Champions Mile three times, while Ho is the only jockey with three wins in the race along with Brett Prebble after also partnering Southern Legend when he sensationally denied Beauty Generation\u2019s hat-trick bid in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cI hope so (to winning the FWD Champions Mile three times), at the moment I am just trying to pick the race for him,\u201d Lui said. \u201cHe\u2019s seven years old, so we just pick the right races for him \u2013 he\u2019s not a young man.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Golden Sixty works through his morning barrier trial.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Lui originally planned to trial Golden Sixty on 4 April, however, constant rain and a sloppy dirt course prompted the handler to place his star galloper on turf that morning.<\/p>
\u201cWe were going to trial (earlier) but the weather and the track was terrible, so we cancelled it,\u201d Lui said.<\/p>
Golden Sixty is expected to face eight opponents this year, led by his leading antagonist California Spangle \u2013 winner of the 2022 G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) \u2013 as well as Waikuku, Voyage Bubble, Beauty Joy, Glorious Dragon and Healthy Happy.<\/p>
The Southern Hemisphere will have two participants in the form of last-start G1 Doncaster Mile (1600m) second My Oberon trekking up for Annabel Neasham alongside New Zealand\u2019s Aegon \u2013 a Group 1 winner as a three-year-old in 2020.<\/p>
Both horses arrived safely in Hong Kong overnight from Australia, as did Dubai Honour in the early hours of this morning. Joao Moreira rides My Oberon, Aegon pairs with James McDonald and Dubai Honour gets Tom Marquand at the HK$65 million showcase.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”19040″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Hong Kong racing heads to Happy Valley this Wednesday (19 April) where Ho and Lui will combine with the smart Brave Star (124lb) in the first section of Class 3 Ho Man Tin Handicap (1200m).<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s a young and up and coming horse, he\u2019s good at Happy Valley and he also has a good draw tomorrow night \u2013 I hope he can win the race,\u201d Lui said.<\/p>
The Myboycharlie gelding faces eight others from barrier four in a competitive finale, including Allgreektome (122lb), Beauty Tycoon (135lb), Sakewin (134lb), Lucky Eight (131lb) and Nordic Dragon (126lb).<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say (whether he can make it to Class 2), he needs to improve,\u201d Lui said.<\/p>
David Hayes trains Allgreektome and chases a second win with the sprinter this term.<\/p>
\u201cHe seems to really have a liking for the Valley. He\u2019s got great gate speed and he\u2019s drawn a good gate this week. So, last time he drew 10 and he did a bit of work and he was beaten by a horse who drew well,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cI think he\u2019ll be pretty competitive.\u201d<\/p>
Wednesday\u2019s (19 April) nine-race fixture at Happy Valley kicks off at 6.45pm with the Class 5 Tsim Sha Tsui Handicap (1800m).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”19039″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Ahead of his bid to capture a record third successive G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) at Sha Tin on Sunday week (30 April), Golden Sixty left both trainer Francis Lui and jockey Vincent Ho satisfied following his effort in a barrier trial this morning (Tuesday, 18 April).Successful in the 2021 and… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":19042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"2normal","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19036"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19036"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19060,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19036\/revisions\/19060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}