Australian bred Medaglia D’Oro (USA) gelding Golden Sixty stands alone as the highest prize money earner in Hong Kong racing history after scoring a commanding win in the HK$20 million Group I FWD Champions Mile (1600m) at Sha Tin on Sunday.
Sealing his sixth Group I in the process for jockey Vincent Ho and trainer Francis Lui, Golden Sixty enhanced his all-time bank to HK$113,400,600 with HK$11.4 million for first place today, surpassing the mantle of HK$106,233,750 previously held by Beauty Generation.
Ho described Golden Sixty eloquently post-race: “He’s one in a lifetime.”
He raced clear to win by two lengths over Irish bred Starspangledbanner gelding California Spangle and has won 21 of 24 starts in HK.
A campaign to Japan is an option for Golden Sixty with Lui confirming his entry for the Group I Yasuda Kinen (1600m) at Tokyo on 5 June.
“Yes, he is entered already but of course, we have to see how he recovers and we also need to see the quarantine, whether we can go and how the arrangements work.
“If everything is easy, we will go,” Lui said.
Fairy King Prawn (2000) and Bullish Luck (2006) are the only two Hong Kong-trained horses to have won the Yasuda Kinen.
Golden Sixty was a $300,000 NZB Ready to Run Sale purchase for his trainer from the Riversley Park draft and was a super successful pinhook having been sourced from the Element Hill draft at the Magic Millions Yearling Sale for $120,000.
Golden Sixty is a half-brother to stakes-placed Rainbow Connection and Igitur being the best of six winners from US bred Irish Group III winner Gaudeamus (USA), a Distorted Humor mare from the family of Group I stars Bosra Sham and Hector Protector.
Gaudeamus has a 2YO filly by Capitalist that was sold by Element Hill at Magic Millions for $425,000 to the bid of All Winners Thoroughbreds..
She produced a three-quarter sister to Golden Sixty by Medaglia D’Oro’s Golden Slipper winning son Vancouver last spring and is now in foal to Wootton Bassett (GB).
