Golden Sixty is the clear favourite to land a third successive Hong Kong Mile on Sunday, becoming just the second horse to achieve the feat.
Ten horses will face-off on Sunday for one of the most lucrative mile races in the world at Sha Tin, which has been contested since 1991 and lands the winner just over £1.6 million.
1.61 with William Hill, the 7-year-old ridden by C Y Ho and trained by K W Lui comes into this in perfect form, winning each of his last three runs, including the Grade 2 Jockey Club Mile last month.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: December 9th, 9:00 P.M. (GMT)
But perfect form is nothing strange to Golden Sixty, who has won 22 of his 25 career races, all of which were run at Sha Tin. In fact, a second in January ended a 16-race winning streak.
His closest challenger in his last two races was Tony Cruz’s California Spangle, and the 4-year-old is expected to go close again, at 5.00.
Another whose whole career has been on this track, he won a Grade 2 and a Grade 3 in between those two defeats to Golden Sixty, under regular jockey Zac Purton. He has never finished worse than second in any of his 13 runs.
We are probably already into each way chances by the time we get to third favourite Schnell Meister at 9.00. In contrast to the favourites, the 4-year-old running for Takahisa Tezuka will be racing in Hong Kong for the first time and has no wins this year, with his best performance a second in the Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo. Christophe Lemaire is on board.
William Buick rides 15.00 shot Danon Scorpion from Takayuki Yasudu’s yard for the first time. After two wins in the spring, his form has suffered; only eleventh in the Mile Championship at Hanshin in which Schnell Meister was fifth.
In the same race was Salios (17.00) who could only manage fourteenth on what was his first partnership with Ryan Moore. Moore retains the ride on the 5-year old who only has one win in the last two years.
Second in 2019, fourth in 2020 and seventh a year ago, Waikuku at 21.00 is unlikely to make it fourth time lucky. Beauty Joy (26.00) has four career wins at Sha Tin but this will be the 6-year-old’s first trip in Grade 1 company.
More Than This was at 44.00 when second a year ago so 51.00 won’t phase his backers, Law of Indices is a 41.00 chance and the outsider at 67.00 is Excellent Proposal.
