Hong Kong Stars Prep for December Internationals

Hong Kong’s finest return to Sha Tin Racecourse Nov. 21 in final warmups for the Longines Hong Kong International races three weeks down the calendar.

Local superstar and 2020 BMW Hong Kong Derby winner Golden Sixty and the first three finishers from this year’s Derby are among the featured players in three group 2 events that lead directly to the four group 1 races Dec. 12 over the same course.

While the overseas entry lists for the big races include some impressive names, history shows the locals cannot be taken lightly when defending their home turf.

Golden Sixty has trained well for his season’s debut in the BOCHK Private Wealth Jockey Club Mile (G2) and will be seeking not only a solid foundation for December but also his 15th straight win. That would put him just two shy of the local record held by the legendary Silent Witness.

“He’s good, He’s healthy. He’s more relaxed, as you can see even in his gallops,” trainer Francis Lui said of Golden Sixty, a 6-year-old Medaglia d’Oro   gelding. “I think he’s getting more mature all the time. He’s very well. He’s good.”

Lui declines to look past December but a good showing in his first two starts of the season could prompt an international booking for the Hong Kong star.

Golden Sixty faces just six rivals, most of them familiar faces including Sky Darci, winner of this year’s BMW Hong Kong Derby; Waikuku, last year’s winner of this race and second in the subsequent Longines Hong Kong Mile (G1); and Southern Legend, a multiple group 1 winner who needs a good effort to show he remains competitive at age 9.

Panfield looks likely in a short field in Sunday’s BOCHK Jockey Club Cup (G2). The son of Lookin at Lucky   was third in the BMW Derby and scored a 1/2-length victory over Columbus County in the Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (G1) going 2,400 meters (about 1 1/2 miles) to wind up his 2020-21 campaign. He won his first outing this season.

The competition in the 2,000-meter (about 1 1/4 mile) Cup includes Russian Emperor , a group 3 winner at the 2020 Royal Ascot meeting when trained by Aidan O’Brien. He was second in the BMW Derby but has struggled since—no worries for jockey Blake Shinn.

“You just have to look at his run in the Derby,” Shinn said. “The testing material is Panfield from the race and there wasn’t much between the two horses at that distance and he’s had two nice lead-up runs into the race.”

The BOHK Private Banking Jockey Club Sprint (G2) has a field of 10 featuring Wellington, winner of the Chairman’s Sprint Prize (G1) in his 2020-21 finale, and Courier Wonder, a 4-year-old who was undefeated last season down the class ladder but finished fourth in a group 2 in his first start of this campaign.

Wellington faces some potential stars of the future in a 10-horse field and has overcome what trainer called a “minor niggle” suffered after the group 1 win. Jockey Alexis Badel said his class can overcome those obstacles.

“The horse feels good,” Badel said of Wellington. “His last trial was quite good. It was impressive. The…