Hong Kong superstar Golden Sixty is the new world #1 on Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s Global Rankings after his record-breaking victory in the FWD Champions Mile at Sha Tin on Sunday [April 24].
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In beating HK Derby runner-up California Spangle by a couple of lengths, the Francis Lui-trained six-year-old gained a 93-point boost, moving up from #3 to #1 to leapfrog Australia’s Royal Ascot-bound sprinter Nature Strip at the top of the charts. Another former world #1, the Pegasus World Cup winner Life Is Good, drops down a spot to #3.
Reigning HK horse of the year Golden Sixty overwhelmed his Sha Tin rivals in the closing stages to complete back-to-back victories in the mile showpiece and take his career tally to 21 wins from 24 starts, all of them in Hong Kong.
In the process he became the highest prize-money earner in HK racing history, enhancing his all-time bank to HK$113,400,600 ($14.45m/£11.36m) with a first prize of HK$11.4m ($1.45m/£1.14m) and thereby surpassing the previous record of HK$106,233,750 ($13.54m/£10.64m) established by Beauty Generation.
“He’s one in a lifetime,” said jockey Vincent Ho, speaking to the HKJC media team. “He still wanted to slow down a bit the last couple of strides but he did amazing.”
Although Golden Sixty has never raced abroad, his connections are now eyeing a trip to Japan for the prestigious Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo racecourse on June 5.
“Yes, he is entered already,” said trainer Lui. “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.
“It’s not easy to have a horse who wins so many races,” added Lui. “We are very happy, we all feel glory about this horse.”
Golden Sixty is a gelded son of top US stallion Medaglia d’Oro who carries the silks of owner Stanley Chan. He achieved a TRC Computer Race Rating of 125 for Sunday’s victory, the 11th time he has topped the 120-mark – roughly speaking, the benchmark for a world-class G1 performance. His personal best was 127 in the Longines HK Mile in December 2020.
He has six wins to his name in official G1 races – but that number would be higher were it not for the fact that certain HK races, such as the HK Derby, are not accorded international status as they are restricted. TRC takes a common sense outlook and treats them as ‘proper’ G1s for rankings purposes.
Unlike traditional methods of racehorse rankings, TRC Global Rankings are a measure of an individual’s level of achievement over a rolling three-year period, providing a principled hierarchy of the leading horses, jockeys, trainers, owners and sires using statistical learning techniques.
Racehorse rankings can be compared to similar exercises in other sports, like golf’s world rankings or the ATP rankings in tennis.
Golden Sixty is the 18th different horse to top the rankings in 434 weeks since 2014; the top three horses by weeks at #1 are Winx (162), Enable (56) and American Pharoah (42).
The most recent #1s were Palace Pier (17 weeks), St Mark’s Basilica (9), Knicks Go (11), Life Is Good (9) and Nature Strip (3). Golden Sixty’s current portfolio is worth 2,066pts according to our system, on which world #1s have ranged from 2035pts to 2796pts with the median being 2408pts.
The current era therefore represents a relatively low level historically with the #1 position having been more volatile than at any time in TRC Global Rankings history.
• Visit the Hong Kong Jockey Club website
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