Overshadowed for much of a decorated career by Golden Sixty and Beauty Generation\u2019s towering feats, Waikuku bids for a second HK$12 million G1 Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) at Sha Tin on Sunday (20 February) with little to prove, according to Zac Purton.<\/p>
Already armed with the rare distinction of defeating Golden Sixty and Beauty Generation at G1 level, John Size\u2019s evergreen galloper will attempt to post a fourth victory at the highest level as he strives to justify Purton\u2019s confidence.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s always been right there. Unfortunately, he\u2019s run into two champions here in Hong Kong in Beauty Generation and Golden Sixty and sometimes he\u2019s had to play second fiddle – but he\u2019s also been able to topple the champs at the same time.<\/p>
\u201cSo, he\u2019s a quality galloper \u2013 we\u2019ve seen that \u2013 and hopefully we can get another one on the board.\u201d said Purton, who is chasing a fifth Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup triumph.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Waikuku ends Golden Sixty\u2019s winning streak<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Triumphant previously on Ambitious Dragon for Tony Millard in 2013, Purton combined with Beauty Generation for three consecutive editions of the Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup from 2018-2020 – before Waikuku inherited his former rival\u2019s crown last season.<\/p>
Purton believes the seven-year-old has maintained form since ending Golden Sixty\u2019s winning streak last month in the G1 Stewards\u2019 Cup (1600m).<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s held his form, he\u2019s obviously not going to improve off that effort \u2013 that\u2019s as good as he can go \u2013 and John\u2019s job is just to tick him over and keep him in that form,\u201d the Australian said, adding the veteran\u2019s listless Sha Tin trial on 11 February should be taken in context of the notoriously laid-back galloper\u2019s trackwork efforts.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to get a guide off his trials sometimes, but he\u2019s pulled up good and we\u2019re happy. He\u2019s a quirky horse. Sometimes he turns up and trials okay. He never a horse that trials great on the dirt, sometimes he\u2019ll turn up and trial okay. Other days, he doesn\u2019t seem that interested and that was one of those days.<\/p>
\u201cBut his action felt good and he pulled up okay. He\u2019s always turned up on race day and that\u2019s all that matters.\u201d<\/p>
Drawn in barrier three against fellow G1 winners Wellington (one) and Sky Field (seven), Waikuku will chase his fifth win over Sha Tin\u2019s 1400m course from six attempts.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7727″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
\u201cIt\u2019s a nice gate and it\u2019s an interesting race with the sprinters stepping up in distance and the smaller field, which sometimes tactically can become quite competitive, so we\u2019ll just see how the track\u2019s playing on the day and John will tell me how to ride him and hopefully we can get the job done again,\u201d Purton said.<\/p>
Tony Cruz, who last won the race with Beauty Flash in 2011 with Gerald Mosse, saddles Californiadeepshot and Ka Ying Star in this season\u2019s edition.<\/p>
\u201cCaliforniadeepshot loves 1400m and is always running a great race at that distance. He\u2019s rated 102 now, so I\u2019m stranded with him at 102, so I had a word with the owners and decided to give him a chance at the race,\u201d Cruz said of the lowest-rated runner in the field.<\/p>
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a good draw (barrier two), which is fantastic and we can lead the race and hopefully we can get in the first three.<\/p>
\u201cIt might be a bit short for Ka Ying Star, but I think he\u2019ll run a good race. He\u2019s better over a mile, so it\u2019s probably going to be too short.\u201d<\/p>
Golden Sixty will also compete in Sunday\u2019s programme, crossing swords in the HK$12 million Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) with fellow BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) winner Sky Darci, champion stayer Panfield and Russian Emperor.<\/p>
Sunday\u2019s (20 February) Group 1 double-header at Sha Tin kicks off at 1pm with the Class 2 Ambitious Dragon Handicap (2000m).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7726″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Overshadowed for much of a decorated career by Golden Sixty and Beauty Generation\u2019s towering feats, Waikuku bids for a second HK$12 million G1 Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) at Sha Tin on Sunday (20 February) with little to prove, according to Zac Purton.Already armed with the rare distinction of defeating Golden… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":7729,"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\/7724"}],"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=7724"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7751,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7724\/revisions\/7751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}