Hong Kong horses sweep Group One

Beauty Eternal dethroned Golden Sixty in the FWD Champions Mile at Sha Tin Racecourse yesterday, preventing it from securing a historic fourth consecutive title in the prestigious annual competition.

All three Group One races were won by Hong Kong horses.

Rainy conditions that caused the track to be yielding seemed to work against the heavily favored eight-year-old Golden Sixty, ridden by Vincent Ho Chak-yiu, who said "when I hit the straight I could already feel Golden Sixty could not pick up with his usual turn of foot."

It was only the second time in its six-year-old career that the horse didn't finish in the top three, the other being in 2019.

Beauty Eternal, a five-year-old ridden by champion jockey Zac Purton, seized the opportunity to secure a first Group One victory in the 1,600-meter race.

In another thriller, Romantic Warrior, with James McDonald atop, won over 2,000 meters to be the first to win the FWD QEII Cup three consecutive times.

Despite starting from seventh, it surged ahead in the straight to edge Japanese rivals Prognosis and North Bridge out by a neck and over two lengths.

"I'm speechless, he's awesome," McDonald said. "At the 600-meter mark, he was off the bridle and struggling in the ground a tad and he just picked up. I'm just in disbelief."

In the Chairman's Sprint Prize, all eight top places out of 11 were claimed by local horses.

Invincible Sage, with Hugh Bowman on top, beat favorites, including California Spangle, ridden by Brenton Avdulla.

Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said excitement at the tracks was over "Romantic Warrior's historic achievement of winning the QEII Cup for the third time, along with the surprising outcome of the mile race."

Noteworthy for him too was the presence of more than 5,100 mainlanders among the nearly 34,000 people in attendance.

"This record-breaking turnout brought nearly HK$400 million from overseas, despite overall turnover dropping around 0.4 percent to just below HK$1.57 billion."