While he will be without his legion of adoring fans in the stands at Sha Tin, Golden Sixty \u2013 \u201cThe Pride of Hong Kong\u201d \u2013 is primed to bounce back from a rare defeat last month in Sunday\u2019s (20 February) HK$12 million G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m).\u00a0<\/p>
And, as Hong Kong comes to a standstill to watch its champion for just over two nerve-racking minutes this weekend, jockey Vincent Ho \u2013 who will bear the weight of the city on his shoulders \u2013 remains unperturbed by a return to 2000m for Golden Sixty.<\/p>
\u201cTo ride a horse like him, I\u2019m always happy \u2013 there are no concerns about 2000 metres, we have done that before \u2013 he\u2019ll be fine,\u201d Ho declared.<\/p>
Golden Sixty has twice raced over 2000m for two wins, triumphing in the 2020 BMW Hong Kong Derby as well as his nail-biting success over Furore in this race last year.<\/p>
This weekend, Golden Sixty and Ho will look to join Indigenous (1998 & 1999), Viva Pataca (2008 & 2009), Military Attack (2013 & 2014) and Designs On Rome (2015 & 2016) as two-time Hong Kong Gold Cup winners in recent history.<\/p>
And, after partnering Golden Sixty in a grass gallop at Sha Tin this morning (Tuesday, 15 February), Ho was delighted with the six-year-old\u2019s effort before sunrise, clocking 1m 20.70s (30.0, 28.2, 22.5) for 1200m alongside stablemate Valiant Dream.<\/p>
\u201cHe felt good, he was really relaxed and he feels nice and strong,\u201d Ho said of the HK$98.093 million earner.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Golden Sixty defies Furore to win last year\u2019s Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Golden Sixty had his unbeaten sequence halted at 16 last month in the G1 Stewards\u2019 Cup (1600m) to a persistent Waikuku and a masterful Zac Purton.<\/p>
The loss was the six-year-old\u2019s first defeat since July, 2019 \u2013 during this period he claimed consecutive G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) crowns in 2020 and 2021.<\/p>
Also, this morning at Sha Tin, Ho hopped aboard The Irishman for a 1200m trial on the dirt after the duo combined for a fast-finishing third in January\u2019s Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) \u2013 the first leg of the HK$48 million Four-Year-Old Classic Series.<\/p>
\u201cHe felt good, I wasn\u2019t happy in the gates because we went in too early and he got worked up, we\u2019re supposed to go in late but we\u2019ll make sure of that in the race,\u201d Ho said.<\/p>
The Irishman stepped away cleanly under Ho, settling close to the rear which is where he remained throughout \u2013 untouched and without asking from Ho to improve his spot.<\/p>
\u201cHe jumped, relaxed well and hit the line strongly. He should handle 2000 metres not a problem,\u201d Ho said.<\/p>
The Irishman will next be tasked with the HK$12 million Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m) on Sunday, 27 February before making a run for HK$24 million BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) glory next month on 20 March.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7629″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]While he will be without his legion of adoring fans in the stands at Sha Tin, Golden Sixty \u2013 \u201cThe Pride of Hong Kong\u201d \u2013 is primed to bounce back from a rare defeat last month in Sunday\u2019s (20 February) HK$12 million G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m).\u00a0And, as Hong… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":7631,"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\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7626"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7626"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7639,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7626\/revisions\/7639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}