HONG KONG, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Golden Sixty, one of the most successful race horses in history, saw its bid for a record fourth G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) crown dashed at Sha Tin on Sunday.
Zac Purton, the six-time Hong Kong champion jockey, pressed forward on Beauty Eternal to take up an uncontested lead and add one more prestigious crown to his glittering collection.
It was Beauty Eternal's first top-level victory. Stablemate Red Lion finished second while Voyage Bubble was third.
Golden Sixty, looking for its 27th victory at its 31st start, finished fourth, three and a quarter lengths behind.
"I thought the only chance I had to beat Golden Sixty was to try to put a gap on them and see how we went and today was his day," said Purton. Jockey Vincent Ho said that the rain throughout the week and earlier on the morning hurt his horse's chances.
"He (Golden Sixty) ran well. The ground was not in our favour. When I hit the straight, I could already feel he could not pick up with his usual turn of foot.
"I know it's a bit difficult. It is what it is, we can't fight the weather. I was in a great position and everything was close to the speed, but still we couldn't improve on that ground."
Despite the rain, all 10 races were safely completed with Romantic Warrior and Invincible Sage securing the other two Group 1 events on a yielding surface in front of 33,586 spectators, including 5,110 visitors from the mainland.
Romantic Warrior stunned James McDonald to land a record-breaking third FWD QEII Cup (2000m) while Invincible Sage emerged as the Chairman's Sprint Prize (1200m) winner. ■
