With superstar miler Golden Sixty leading the charge at #2 no fewer than three horses trained in Hong Kong now feature in the Top Ten of Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s exclusive Global Rankings.
After a dominant performance at the annual Longines-sponsored International Races (HKIR) at Sha Tin on Sunday [Dec 10], where domestic horses won three of the four races in front of a crowd of 65,252, hometown hero Golden Sixty is joined by Romantic Warrior and Lucky Sweynesse in the upper reaches of the chart.
A former #1 himself, Golden Sixty is now the world’s leading active racehorse after the recent retirement of Japan Cup hero Equinox.
Moreover, with a career prize-money tally of HK$165.85m (approx. £16.2m/$18.9m), the eight-year-old is the world’s leading money earner of all-time, surpassing the mark achieved by Australia’s mighty mare Winx, whose legendary career ended with just over £14.56m banked (at IFHA exchange rates converted to pounds sterling).
Having been absent from the track since April, Golden Sixty re-enters the TRC Global Rankings at #2 after a sparkling display to complete a treble in the Hong Kong Mile, regaining his crown after last year’s neck defeat to California Spangle.
Even after a 224-day break, however, there were to be no mistakes this time around as jockey Vincent Ho (£19 from #22, +39pt) navigated a path from an unhelpful draw widest of all in gate 14 before unleashing a blistering turn of foot in the Sha Tin straight.
Having put the race to bed, the ‘Pride of Hong Kong’ was untroubled to hold HK Derby winner Voyage Bubble by a length and a half with Japanese G1 winner Namur third.
“He’s a monster!” exclaimed the winning jockey. “When I asked him for an effort, he lengthened like I can’t believe – he’s still got that turn of foot. It’s crazy; it's amazing. “I got the three-wide cover where I wanted to be and he knows his racing now. He never travelled keen with me, he was relaxed all of the way and then when I asked him for an effort, he just gave me 100%. He’s not eight – he feels like he’s four!”
Trained by Francis Lui (#15 from #19, +54pt), Golden Sixty has now won 26 of his 30 career starts, among them a Hong Kong record of ten G1 races. Following HK Mile victories in 2020 and 2021, the son of Medaglia d’Oro joins Good Ba Ba as the race’s second three-time winner.
Golden Sixty is set for two more runs in 2024 before retirement, with the Stewards’ Cup [Jan 21] and FWD Champions Mile [April 28] on the agenda.
If Golden Sixty did not exist, Romantic Warrior’s thrilling victory in the Hong Kong Cup would have been more than enough to satisfy a joyous crowd. Just 43 days after winning Australia’s premier weight-for-age race, the Cox Plate, the Danny Shum-trained five-year-old held off overseas visitors Luxembourg and Hishi Iguazu in finish of short heads for the HK$36m ($4.6m/£3.67m) contest.
Winning jockey James McDonald, the world #2 behind Ryan Moore, said: "I think he's the toughest racehorse I've ever sat on and his courage, his will to win, is just something that I've never felt before. I've ridden some fantastic racehorses – unbelievable ones – and he's right up there.
“To come back from a Cox Plate, I thought was going to be a ginormous task. Even though it was a small margin, I think he's come through it with flying colours.”
Romantic Warrior (#9 from #11, +90pt) enters the TRC Top Ten, one place ahead of HK Sprint winner Lucky Sweynesse (#10 from #18, +69pt). With six-time HK champ Zac Purton (stays at #11, +27pt) aboard the winner, HK-based horses filled the first five spots in a totally dominant display from the home team.
French-trained Junko (#35 from#81, +143pt) prevented a clean sweep for the locals when arriving late on the scene to claim the HK Vase for the legendary Andre Fabre (#25 from #27, +32pt).
• 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 the golf’s world rankings or the ATP rankings in tennis.
They are formulated from the last three years of races we consider Group or Graded class all over the world and update automatically each week according to the quality of a horse’s performances and their recency, taking into account how races work out.
View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires
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