Abstract: Excited states built upon long-lived high-spin isomers in hard-to-reach neutron-rich Au (Z = 79) isotopes were populated using multi-nucleon transfer reactions between 136Xe and 198Pt at 7 MeV/u. These states in 196,198-202Au were identified for the first time using the powerful combination of the VAMOS++ spectrometer, the CATLIFE detection system, and the AGATA 1-ray tracking array. Their measured energies exhibit remarkable regularity as a function of neutron number and are seen to be inherited from the energies of yrast-band members in the corresponding Hg (Z = 80) isotope. Large-scale shell-model calculations reproduce the observed regularity and show that these states arise from the unique-parity orbitals 20h11/2 and v0i13/2 coupled to the Hg core. This regularity is due to the dominant proton configurations of the Hg and Au isotopes, where the level energies are almost independent of different neutron-orbital occupancies. The calculated Au wave functions show significant higher-spin components of the corresponding Hg core, unlike what is expected in the conventional interpretation in terms of the weak-coupling/decoupling limits of the particle-core coupling model.