Tag: Hong Kong

Reigning Horse Of The Year Golden Sixty Extends Win Streak To 15 In Hong Kong

Golden Sixty's rehearsal for next month's G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile went according to plan on Sunday, Nov. 21 at Sha Tin as he brushed aside six rivals to claim the G2 BOCHK Private Wealth Jockey Club Mile.

Looking to defend his Hong Kong Mile crown at the 2021 LONGINES Hong Kong International Races on Dec. 12, the reigning Hong Kong Horse of the Year extended his winning streak to 15 with a sublime last-to-first effort under jockey Vincent Ho.

Last defeated in July of 2019, the brilliant son of Medaglia d'Oro looked in fine fettle as he launched from his customary position to score by a length, clocking 1m 34.55s ahead of the dual G1-winning Waikuku and last season's BMW Hong Kong Derby hero Sky Darci, respectively.

Justifying 1.1 favoritism to win, Ho was pleased with his mount's first-up performance following three trials in preparation for his seasonal return today.

“He definitely wasn't at his best today and we're still building him up. After this race he should be pretty close to his top form,” Ho said. “We'll see how he pulls up and do some recovery work on him and get him ready for the Internationals.”

Sizzling late, the 6-year-old registered a slick 21.51s over the final 400m, the only horse in the contest to do so.

Today's triumph takes Golden Sixty to a record-equaling 18 career wins in Hong Kong, alongside only Beauty Generation and Silent Witness, while his sequence of 15 successive victories has him just two shy of Silent Witness' record-setting 17 in a row.

“It was a nice run, I think we both enjoyed that. It was the perfect draw on the outside with no speed in the race.

“They tried to pick up at the 600 (metre mark), bring the speed up, and that was good for us. He relaxed very well behind and just trucked through, saved some ground until the straight and he was able to cruise up easily and as usual, he did his job.

“He saw the winning post and he was sort of already 'job done' and he tried to slow down but I said 'just give me two extra strides, please',” Ho said.

Rated 131, Golden Sixty collected four mantles at last season's Champion Awards, named Horse of the Year, Champion Miler, Champion Middle-Distance Horse and Most Popular Horse.

“There were no concerns (of a slow pace harming his chances) because his sprint home as a miler can be 21-something [seconds] so in this field it was difficult for them to actually sprint with me,” Ho said.

“I knew he was going to be fresh, last season we started at 1400 (metres) and I knew the pace was going to be faster than today. First-up over 1600 (metres) when he's fresh and surely there's no pace, it's better to be slow but we know if I'm just at the back and nothing fires him up, he can relax very well and I can just wait to press the button,” Ho explained.

Trainer Francis Lui was equally as pleased with his star galloper's effort, whose victory today enhanced his all-time earnings to HK$80.633 million.

“I must say we were confident in this race but I'm happy to see him win again. This horse has got a very good fighting heart and once he relaxes he has a very good turn of foot,” Lui said.

Golden Sixty capped a G2 running double for Lui who earlier landed the BOCHK Private Banking Jockey Club Sprint (1200m) with Lucky Patch.

“Golden Sixty's morning trackwork has been quite impressive, he's more mature than last season. I discussed it with Vincent (Ho) and he seemed happy with the training and how he was behaving at trackwork,” Lui said.

The post Reigning Horse Of The Year Golden Sixty Extends Win Streak To 15 In Hong Kong appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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A Cooler, Calmer Golden Sixty Returns To Action

Having passed the potentially gut-busting early-season group handicaps, where he'd have been forced to concede plenty of weight, reigning Hong Kong Horse of the Year Golden Sixty (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro) makes his much-anticipated 6-year-old debut in Sunday's G2 BOCHK Private Wealth Jockey Club Mile at Sha Tin Racecourse.

By all accounts, it is a much more mature version of Golden Sixty, who was last seen taking out the G1 FWD Champions Mile nearly seven months ago to run his winning streak to 14, three wins shy of the record held by the legendary Silent Witness (Aus). One of those horses that does just enough in his trials heretofore, the bay has put his rivals to the sword and is unbeaten in three morning hit-outs ahead of this comebacker. He should be fit enough to dispatch of a familiar cast en route to the G1 Longines Hong Kong Mile Dec. 12.

“He's good, he's healthy. He's more relaxed as you can see even in his gallops,” trainer Francis Lui told the HKJC notes team.

“I think he's getting more mature all the time. He's very well. He's good. We have this Sunday's race and then the Hong Kong Mile and then we'll see after that what we do,” he added.

 

Sunday's co-featured G2 BOCHK Private Banking Jockey Club Sprint (1200mT) also lures a pair of top-shelf runners who race first-up in the form of Wellington (Aus) (All Too Hard {Aus}) and the evergreen Hot King Prawn (Aus) (Denman {Aus}). Wellington won four of his six starts last term, capping the season with a 1 1/2-length defeat of the re-opposing Computer Patch (Aus) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}) in the G1 Chairman's Sprint Prize Apr. 25. Hot King Prawn is the defending champion of this event and bounced back from a subpar seventh as the favourite in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Sprint to earn a long-overdue top-level tally in the Centenary Sprint Cup. He was last seen finishing fifth, four lengths in back of Wellington, in a Class 1 handicap over course and distance Mar. 13.

“He's always been quite an easy horse to get fit and, of course, he's a very good horse so he always gives me a good feel,” said jockey Alexis Badel of Wellington. “He might need that first piece of competition, he might need to have that run but he looks good, fresh and happy. His action is good as well.”

Panfield (Chi) (Lookin At Lucky), third in last year's BMW Hong Kong Derby, earned champion stayer honors with a victory in the G1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2400mT) in May and was highly impressive in taking out the G3 Sha Tin Trophy H. over an insufficient 1600 metres Oct. 17. The 5-year-old entire is the marquee horse in the G2 BOCHK Jockey Club Cup over a much more suitable 10-furlong trip, a race he'll be using as a steppingstone to either the G1 Longines Hong Kong Cup–the richest event on International Day Dec. 12–or the G1 Longines Hong Kong Vase over the 2400 metres.

The post A Cooler, Calmer Golden Sixty Returns To Action appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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‘Not Like The Dirt Tracks In America’: Group 1 Winner Pyledriver Targeting Saudi Cup After Hong Kong

British trainer William Muir is aiming recent Lingfield winner Pyledriver towards The Saudi Cup meeting where his options include the $20 million Group 1 Saudi Cup and the $1.5 million Group 3 Neom Turf Cup.

The 4-year-old landed the Listed Churchill Stakes at the all-weather track on Saturday on his first run since winning the Group 1 Coronation Cup on Oaks Day at Epsom in June.

Muir, who trains in partnership with Chris Grassick, will now send Pyledriver for the Hong Kong Vase on Dec. 12 before a possible tilt at the world's most valuable race at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh on Saturday, Feb. 26.

Pyledriver missed his intended big-race summer targets with a pulled muscle, meaning he heads into a worldwide campaign as a relatively fresh horse.

Muir said: “His Lingfield win was exactly what we wanted to happen, probably a little bit more.

“Our plan, to start with, was to go to Germany for the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Bayern the previous week. We knew he would be competitive but we also knew he wasn't 100 per cent fit. With the long journey on a horse box and the race, it might just have taken the edge off him.

“The Churchill Stakes wasn't ideal – we had to give away a 7lbs penalty – but we thought it would be better as a prep race. The race went perfectly – it was a great performance. He's taken it well and come out of the race fantastically.”

The frustrations of his summer campaign – when he was ruled out of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes just days before the prestigious Ascot Group 1 contest – could turn out to be a blessing in disguise as Pyledriver embarks on his globetrotting adventures.

Muir added: “It was frustrating but it wasn't worrying because it wasn't really an injury, it was more of a niggle. Because he's such a good horse, you could have turned a niggle into a big problem if we hadn't done exactly what was right to do.

“I think he'd have gone very close in the King George. The last piece of work he did before the race was unbelievable, the way he looked and travelled. Maybe, it was meant to be, and this winter campaign is where it happens.

“We had planned in our minds that we would give him a break after the King George but it would've still been very tight. If we'd have won that, we would've probably said 'we'll have a go for the Juddmonte International at York', so we'd have had to stop then in August to give him a break. Would we have got back for Hong Kong? I don't know. This way, we're definitely on target, we're in great shape and we're ready to go.”

Pyledriver had a successful season last year. He won the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot before landing the Group 2 Great Voltigeur at York in August.

His trip to York is the furthest he's travelled from Muir and Grassick's base in Lambourn, but the co-trainer has few worries about jetting across the globe to take in the The Saudi Cup.

Muir added: “I don't think the travelling will bother him one little bit. Everything we've done with him over the years, nothing's phased him. I can't say for certain because he hasn't done it but he'll probably think it is good fun.

“After he won at Lingfield I walked round to see him back in his box before we left and he had his head over the door when a jumbo jet flew over. He was staring up at it and I said to him 'look closely son, that's where you're going next'.”

Pyledriver's biggest victories have come over distances around 2400m but he had little trouble dropping down to 2000m for the Churchill Stakes. The Saudi Cup, at 1800m on dirt, is shorter still, but Muir is not overly concerned about a possible switch of surface.

He revealed: “They reckon it's the nicest dirt track in the world. I talked to David Egan and Ted Voute (Prince Faisal's racing manager) who was out there last year and they both said it was a lovely surface. It's not like the dirt tracks in America and Ted said our horse would love it.

“Everything we've thrown at Pyledriver, he's taken, so I would be confident enough that he'd handle it. The nine-furlongs (1800m) of The Saudi Cup is the only sort of nagging concern.

“After we finished third in the St Leger last year, I was at pains to say that we would have rather dropped back to a mile-and-a-quarter (2000m) than step up to a mile-and-three-quarters (2800m). He's got so many gears, but we had a go, it was a British Classic and we had a go.

“The Saudi Cup meeting fits in with our time plan. At this moment in time, we're looking to go to Hong Kong, Saudi, then we'll go on to the Sheema Classic in Dubai. The Saudi Cup is attractive as it's the richest race in the world but it's one step at a time.”

Pyledriver gave Muir his first Group 1 victory when landing the Coronation Stakes. Now he could take him to the world's most valuable races.

Muir added: “It's fantastic. This is what we've strived for since I started training in 1990. Early on we had Averti, who was touched off in the Nunthorpe when he was unlucky in running and was runner-up in the Abbaye.

“We've had other very good horses but Pyledriver is the best we've had as he's won a Group 1. This is what all small yards are looking for. Having this horse is a privilege as he's just a very special horse.”

The post ‘Not Like The Dirt Tracks In America’: Group 1 Winner Pyledriver Targeting Saudi Cup After Hong Kong appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Moore, McDonald Lead International Cast For Longines IJC

Eight high-profile overseas jockeys will join four Hong Kong-based riders to compete for the HK$500,000 top prize in the Longines International Jockeys' Championship to be held at the iconic Happy Valley Racecourse on Hong Kong Island Wednesday, Dec. 8.

Ryan Moore is set to jet in to make a 15th appearance at the IJC, having dead-heated for the spoils with John Murtagh and Christophe Lemaire in 2009 before winning the title outright 12 months hence. Moore, who has finished on the podium four times since his most recent victory, currently sits atop the Longines World's Best Jockey standings, having partnered this season with the likes of G1 Prince of Wales's S. victress Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}); St Mark's Basilica (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), four times a Group 1 winner this term; treble Oaks winner Snowfall (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}); and G1 Cheveley Park S. hero Tenebrism (Caravaggio), to name only a few.

New Zealand-born, but Sydney-based James McDonald comes into the IJC in flying form, as he rode a record-setting 10 winners during the Melbourne Cup Carnival, including the main event aboard Verry Elleegant (NZ) (Zed {NZ}), one of four top-level scores. McDonald is the clear leader for the jockeys' premiership in both Sydney and New South Wales.

Yuga Kawada is Japan's second-leading jockey by number of winners (trailing only Lemaire) and is winning with 28.3% of his rides, a remarkable strike rate on the very competitive JRA circuit. He helped make history for the island nation at the Breeders' Cup meeting, guiding Loves Only You (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) to a slashing landmark success in the GI Filly & Mare Turf at Del Mar. He also booted home 46-1 gamble Danon Kingly (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in this year's G1 Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo.

Hollie Doyle and partner Tom Marquand make a return visit to Happy Valley this year. Doyle made a bit of history of her own at the 2020 IJC, becoming the first female rider to win one of the legs to finish in a share of third with Alexis Badel. The couple were fifth and third, respectively, in this year's British Flat Racing Jockeys' Championship.

South Africa's Lyle Hewitson makes his IJC debut this year, having recently secured a third South Africa Champion Jockey title in the 2020/2021 season.

Other foreign invitees include: IJC debuter Damian Lane (Australia) and Mickael Barzalona (France).

Defending champion Zac Purton and his arch-rival Joao Moreira–winner of the 2012 IJC when representing Singapore–fly the Bauhinia flag and will be joined by the highest-ranked rider in Hong Kong as well as the leading homegrown rider.

The four races that comprise the IJC are worth HK$6.2 million and each of the races–two Class 3 handicaps and two in Class four–is set to receive a 20% boost in prize money for the event. Trainers will also be incentivised to enter their horses, as a total of HK$350,000 will be split among the three trainers whose horses accumulate the most points.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club has gained approval from the HKSAR government to host the IJC and the weekend's Longines Hong Kong International Races with stringent COVID-related protocols in place.

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