Hong Kong hero Golden Sixty the latest global icon for Medaglia D'Oro

Not even the spectre of Covid-19 could detract from the global nature of the Longines Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin on Sunday.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club bill the card’s Group 1 events as the ‘Turf World Championships’, and while other international meetings also easily live up to that status, there must have been great satisfaction at the close of play on Sunday given that the day’s features had consisted of winners from Ireland (Mogul in the Vase for Aidan O’Brien) and Japan (Danon Smash emulated his sire, Lord Kanaloa, by taking the Sprint, while Normcore, by Harbinger, won the Cup) in addition to the highly popular success of domestic runner Golden Sixty in the Mile.

A local horse he might be but Golden Sixty is actually the most exotic of the four Group 1-winning animals. Bred in Australia and bought by current connections out of a breeze-up in New Zealand, Hong Kong’s latest phenomenon hails from a southern hemisphere crop of an international heavyweight in Medaglia D’Oro and is out of an American-bred, Gaudeamus, who was trained to win an Irish Group 2 by Jim Bolger.