The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Champion Awards have been all about Golden Sixty in recent years, but perhaps the most difficult decision judges face this time around is the one which will determine whether the magnificent miler is honoured for a fifth straight year.

To go with his record three consecutive Horse of the Year gongs, Golden Sixty has also been crowned Champion Miler in the past three seasons on top of his Champion Four-Year-Old award in 2019-20 and Champion Middle-Distance Horse nod in 2020-21.

This year, the only category the 10-time Group One winner has a live chance in is Champion Miler and he faces stiff competition from this season’s three other top-level victors at the distance – Romantic Warrior, Voyage Bubble and Beauty Eternal.

While Golden Sixty’s monstrous Group One Hong Kong Mile success off a 224-day break looks superior to the wins of Voyage Bubble (Stewards’ Cup) and Beauty Eternal (Champions Mile), Romantic Warrior’s Group One Yasuda Kinen triumph in Japan likely stands alone in terms of degree of difficulty.

However, the judges would be lying if they said their decision making doesn’t feature at least a degree of sentiment.

With Romantic Warrior certain to be crowned Horse of the Year and Champion Middle-Distance Horse at July 12’s gala dinner, it seems likely the voting panel – made up of Jockey Club executives Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, Andrew Harding and Greg Carpenter as well as local journalists Carlos Wu, Bart Vanders and Sam Lo – will take what is surely their last chance to add to the glittering Champion Awards CV of the most successful horse the city has ever seen.

While Romantic Warrior’s effort to travel to Japan at the end of a long season and win a fifth consecutive Group One was monumental, Golden Sixty’s victory on Hong Kong racing’s biggest day had to be seen to be believed and provides more than enough substance for the judges to make a case for Francis Lui Kin-wai’s superstar being crowned Champion Miler for the fourth straight time in what could be his last season of racing.

Elsewhere, California Spangle’s victories in the Group One Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1,400m) and Dubai’s Group One Al Quoz Sprint (1,200m) look enough to ensure him Champion Sprinter spoils ahead of Invincible Sage, Lucky Sweynesse and Victor The Winner.

Invincible Sage should end the season as Champion Four-Year-Old, with his elite-level success in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1,200m) surely enough to see him get the nod over Massive Sovereign, who prevailed in a Hong Kong Derby (2,000m) which, on ratings, wasn’t much more than a glorified Class Two.

Galaxy Patch and Helios Express also compiled impressive four-year-old campaigns, but a lack of top-level success looks likely to see them fall short.

The panel saw the need to nominate three horses for Champion Griffin when only one can win it, with Gorgeous Win and James Tak making up the numbers in a category where Ka Ying Rising is the only logical winner.

The David Hayes-trained three-year-old rocketed 59 points up the ratings thanks to a five-win debut season which culminated in victory in the recent Group Three Sha Tin Vase (1,200m).

Then there is the Champion Stayer category. To say it hasn’t exactly been a vintage year for Hong Kong’s stayers would be something of an understatement and officials probably have no choice but to anoint Group Three Queen Mother Memorial Cup (2,400m) winner La City Blanche.

The alternative is Five G Patch, who went winless in the 2023-24 campaign and is in the running because of his second behind Rebel’s Romance in the Group One Champions & Chater Cup (2,400m), a race in which La City Blanche finished third.

La City Blanche was also a Group One winner in Argentina pre-import, which might make it a bit easier for the panel to justify bestowing him with “champion” status.