IT was a case of close but no cigar for the Ballydoyle team at the big Hong Kong international meeting last weekend where Luxembourg made a valiant bid for the Hong Kong Cup, just failing to beat Romantic Warrior and going down by a short-head.

Warm Heart was overhauled late in the Vase and took third, three and a quarter-lengths behind the winner Junko.

But the highlight of the day was the three hometown favourites producing the goods in the Sprint, Cup and capped by the dominant performance of Golden Sixty in the Mile.

Longines Hong Kong Mile (Group 1)

“THAT’S not a whip, it’s a wand. That ride from Vincent was magic,” race caller Mark McNamara called as Hong Kong’s champion Golden Sixty put in one of his most impressive performances at the age of eight, landing a record-equalling third Group 1 Longines Hong Kong Mile success at a packed Sha Tin.

Coming off a 224-day break, Golden Sixty showed no signs of his age as jockey Vincent Ho overcame the widest of 14 stall and produced the champion early in the straight.

He showed impressive acceleration to quickly go three lengths clear and the Medaglia d’Oro gelding raced home, at the line a length and a half ahead of Voyage Bubble, with Japanese filly Namur third.

“He’s a monster. 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,” Ho said.

Golden Sixty joins Good Ba Ba as the race’s second triple winner of this race.

“It’s amazing. I got the three-wide with cover, where I wanted to be and he knows his racing now. He’s 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. I was confident, even from gate 14 as long as I could get into the right position,” Ho said.

It was the gelding’s 26th win on his 30th start, and his 10th Group 1 – a Hong Kong record – and enhances his all-time earnings to HK$165.85 million.

“The whole team did a massive job. They are talking about retiring the horse. Of course, it looks like the right thing to do – he has achieved so much – but if he is still performing like this and he loves his racing so much, is it the right thing to take away what he loves?” Ho added.

The gelding was expected to retire following his next two runs in 2024, the Stewards’ Cup on January 21st and FWD Champions Mile on April 28th.

“He is my champion. I think he enjoyed the race – he knew what to do. He showed good fighting heart,” trainer Francis Lui said.

On Namur’s third placing, jockey William Buick said: “She ran great. She was drawn 12 which wasn’t ideal but I did the thing I had to do and she’s got a good turn of foot which she showed today. She bumped into a superstar.”

Romantic Warrior defies challenges

Longines Hong Kong Cup (Group 1)

ROMANTIC Warrior produced a huge effort to hold off Luxembourg and Hishi Iguazu in a fitting climax to the Longines Hong Kong Cup.

Just 43 days after a historic win in Australia’s premier weight-for-age race, the Cox Plate, Romantic Warrior looked to have burned off his rivals with a burst of acceleration at the two-furlong mark. But the chasers never gave up and Luxembourg, particularly, stuck to his task to just lose out by a short-head.

McDonald 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.”

Romantic Warrior got the perfect run into the race just off the pace set by Money Catcher, though Ryan Moore kicking Luxembourg into the race with three furlongs to run had meant he needed to find his deep reserves of class and courage much earlier than was ideal.

“It was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been riding the horse,” said McDonald. “Everything’s been pretty straightforward but there’s always that unknown, coming back from Australia after a really tough run in the Cox Plate (and a) tough run in the Turnbull.

“For him to come here and do what he did in the Hong Kong Cup for a second time after all those hurdles he’s overcome, it’s one of my proudest moments on him.”

“We’re lucky that Romantic Warrior is a real warrior. He had a hard race and then two days off and a long flight. If you’re a human being, when you go overseas you get jet lag, whereas a horse just stays on the box. He’s a tough, tough horse and I love him,” added trainer Danny Shum.

The Irish-bred five-year-old Acclamation gelding, sourced by Michael Kinane, took his earnings HK$119.7 million dollars, becoming the third horse in Hong Kong racing history to pass the HK$100 million mark.

Aidan O’Brien was proud of the runner-up saying: “He ran a great race. He was coming and coming and just on the wrong nod he [Romantic Warrior] came back up on him.

“But he ran a stormer, Ryan gave him a great ride. He’s brave and he tries very hard. He’s not been over-raced and he is very consistent.”

Longines Hong Kong Vase (Group 1)

JUNKO was a forgotten horse in the Vase but it proved folly to ignore the combination of Andre Fabre and a last time out German Group 1 winner as the Grosser Allianz Preis von Bayern winner Junko and Maxime Guyon found the best finish to run down Warm Heat and hold the Japanese runner Zeffiro.

Guyon had also been in the saddle back in 2014 when the globetrotting Flintshire had struck for the same combination. It was the trainer’s third victory with Borgia winning back in 1999.

Third early in the year to Westover in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, Junko’s Grosser Preis von Bayern win was in very different conditions, soft ground against three rivals, but the Wertheimer Brother’s Intello gelding looked the part here.

Settled at the rear of a modest pace set by La City Blanche, Ryan Moore and Warm Heart were the first to move as the gallop picked up turning for home.

Junko came wide of rivals on the bend and raced past Warm Heart and Zeffiro with a furlong to run, going on to win by a length over Zeffiro with Moore’s mount fading to third, two and a quarter-lengths in arrears.

“We didn’t know before the race if he would like this ground or not because normally he prefers the soft ground but today in Hong Kong the ground was good.

“We had a good race, I’m not too far back and just after the last turn, he has a good turn of foot. Everybody knows Andre Fabre. He’s the best trainer,” Guyon said.

“He has done a really good job with this horse because he has just won a second Group 1 - he’s just won a Group 1 in Germany - and he comes to Hong Kong for a win and it’s not easy to do that.”

Fabre had three seconds in the Vase with Flintshire, again a year after his win, Talismanic in 2017 and Botanik 12 months ago.

“I’m really delighted,” he said. “It was expected because he’s improving race after race. He’s not had a lot of races, he’s only four. He had a setback in Deauville so he couldn’t run in the Grand Prix and he had the race in Germany. He will be back in Dubai, we kept him for that and for the international races.”

Longines Hong Kong Sprint (Group 1)

VICTORY in the Sprint went to another home star as any questions about Lucky Sweynesse loosening his grip on the world’s best sprinter mantle were swept aside when Manfred Man’s charge surged to victory in the HK$26 million Longines Hong Kong Sprint.

Europe’s best sprinter Highfield Princess, a four-time Group 1 winner in three different countries, was aiming to be the first raider to win the sprint since Japan’s Danon Smash’s win in 2020.

It looked like Lucky Sweynesse was again in need of a big slice of luck at the top of the straight when Zac Purton had to get off heels and hook him around runners to get a clear passage up the straight but he quickly accelerated to score from the fast-finishing outsider Lucky With You.

Hong Kong horses filled the first five positions with Highfield Princess sixth after being well placed on the final bend.

Victor The Winner and Jasper Krone led early, with Lucky Sweynesse not far off them.

When Lucky Sweynesse got clear running, he surged past Victor The Winner, to score by three quarters of a length from the fast finishing Lucky With You, while Wellington was a length and three quarter away in third.

“He’s been our best sprinter for the last year, and he was able to atone for last year (didn’t get clear run),” said Purton.

“I could feel in the morning his trackwork had improved, and his action was getting a little bit better. His all-around demeanour in the morning was getting back to where it was last season. I could see he was blossoming at the right time.”

Reporting Declan Schuster, Scott Burton, Daryl Timms, Tom Peacock