Golden Sixty is expected to follow the exact path he took last season towards the 2022 G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m), however, this time around he\u2019ll be looking to join Good Ba Ba \u2013 a Hong Kong racing immortal \u2013 as the only three-time winners of the race.<\/p>
Chasing a career 800th winner at the season-opener at Sha Tin on Sunday (11 September), trainer Francis Lui indicated that Hong Kong\u2019s champion is sound and healthy as he begins to slowly prepare for his highly anticipated return in the 2022 G2 BOCHK Private Wealth<\/em> Jockey Club Mile (1600m) on Sunday, 20 November.<\/p> \u201cHe seems ok, healthy and he\u2019s back to work. He seems more relaxed in his gallops,\u201d Lui said. \u201cHe has such a good fighting heart; I can\u2019t see any change in him and after the barrier trial we\u2019ll know more. Maybe that will be at the end of September.\u201d<\/p> Sealing the sixth Group 1 win of his career at the end of last season in the 2022 G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m), Golden Sixty enhanced his all-time bank to HK$113,400,600 \u2013 surpassing the mantle of HK$106,233,750 previously held by Beauty Generation \u2013 to stand alone as Hong Kong\u2019s highest prize money earner in history.<\/p> His 21 wins are the most in recent history, which also includes four Group 2s, a pair of Group 3s as well as his 2020 Four-Year-Old Classic Series sweep.<\/p> \u201cI think in November, he\u2019ll run in the Jockey Club Mile and then into the Hong Kong International Races \u2013 just like last season.<\/p> \u201cHe\u2019s the same, towards the end of last season we kept him trotting until the season break and the track closed and after it opened it again, we started again. When he gallops he\u2019s much more relaxed,\u201d Lui said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column] Golden Sixty soars to LONGINES Hong Kong Mile glory in 2021.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] With 798 Hong Kong victories achieved, Lui remains confident in Golden Sixty\u2019s ability ahead of this season, admitting that he won\u2019t need to improve \u2013 instead, maintain his current level, especially as a seven-year-old.<\/p> \u201cIt\u2019s hard to tell, I\u2019m confident in the horse but he\u2019s seven years old, he won\u2019t improve but he\u2019ll keep his form,\u201d Lui said.<\/p> Good Ba Ba won a treble of Hong Kong Mile crowns in 2007, 2008 and 2009, while Golden Sixty claimed the last two editions in 2020 and 2021.<\/p> Discussing the upcoming season, Lui is hopeful of capturing similar success to recent years \u2013 that is, as long as his new wave of young hopes can rise to meet the challenge.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cI hope I can have more winners but across the last few seasons I\u2019ve had 50 to 60 winners every season and most of the older horses, their rating is at their peak, so I\u2019m looking for young horses to come in and keep the quality level (high),\u201d Lui said. \u201cIt\u2019s too early to tell how the younger horses will go.\u201d<\/p> This Sunday, Lui has five runners at the season\u2019s first fixture: Keep You Warm, Lucky Gold, Turbo Power, Gallant Waking and Theta Hedge.<\/p> Keep You Warm (115lb) tackles the Class 1 HKSAR Chief Executive\u2019s Cup Handicap (1200m) at Sha Tin against a stacked field which features Sky Field (135lb), Lucky Patch (132lb), Duke Wai (124lb) and Lucky Sweynesse (115lb).<\/p> \u201cHe\u2019s ok, he had a good trial at Conghua, but the race is tough with Sky Field, though a light weight, well, you never know,\u201d Lui said.<\/p> Yesterday morning (Tuesday, 6 September), The Irishman \u2013 fifth in the 2022 BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) \u2013 stepped out to trial with Zac Purton at Sha Tin ahead of his five-year-old campaign, finishing midfield and under his own steam behind Panfield who crossed the line first in 1m 10.33s for 1200m on dirt.<\/p> \u201cHe seems ok, that was his first trial and he\u2019s a bit keen because he drew outside and the pace was slow, but Zac (Purton) said he was happy with the trial,\u201d Lui said.<\/p> At both Sha Tin\u2019s (Sunday, 11 September) and Happy Valley\u2019s (Wednesday, 14 September) season-opening fixtures there will be Triple Trio and Six Win Bonus\u2019 up for grabs with a colossal HK$88 million spread across the two meetings.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”9075″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Golden Sixty is expected to follow the exact path he took last season towards the 2022 G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m), however, this time around he\u2019ll be looking to join Good Ba Ba \u2013 a Hong Kong racing immortal \u2013 as the only three-time winners of the race.Chasing a career… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":9077,"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\/season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9073"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9073"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9082,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9073\/revisions\/9082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}