Beauty Generation Tops Hong Kong Group 1 Races

Beauty Generation pursues his bid for a third consecutive Hong Kong Horse of the Year title as the featured attraction in three group 1 events April 26 at Sha Tin Racecourse.

At least two others on the FWD Champions Day program also could hope to nail down the top honor during the second of two major international events on the Hong Kong calendar. Waikuku has vanquished Beauty Generation four times this season and faces him again in the FWD Champions Mile (G1). Exultant also would have claims if he wins the FWD QE II Cup (G1) at 2,000 meters (about 1 1/4 miles).

The Chairman's Sprint Prize (G1) at 1,200 meters (about six furlongs) completes the card, which will be run before an empty grandstand as part of the ongoing effort to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beauty Generation, an 8-year-old Road to Rock gelding, already has 18 wins in Hong Kong, one more than the legendary Silent Witness. He has the track record at a mile and, with more than HK$100 million (about US$12.9 million) in earnings, also tops that list. He also is the winner, twice and running, of the FWD Champions Mile.

His 2018-19 season was a cakewalk, including most of a 10-race winning streak, and a second straight Horse of the Year title was a foregone conclusion. This season has been different as the John Moore trainee struggled through four straight losses, albeit by relatively narrow margins and in top company, before rebounding to win his past two races.

In the most recent of those, the April 5 Chairman's Trophy (G2), the veteran flashed the form of his youth, chasing down the frontrunner to win in the final strides. Of equal note in that race, Waikuku, the 5-year-old Harbour Watch gelding who had the better of Beauty Generation through much of the season, came up flat, beating only Fat Turtle.

Trainer John Size noted Waikuku's flop in the Chairman's Trophy came after strong efforts in two top-level heats and a lengthy break.

"This is his outer limits," Size said of Waikuku. "So for him to run two big races in a row at group 1 level, it sapped his energy. We'll see how we go. He hasn't got any problems or anything. It's just a matter of what energy he's got left to finish off the season with."

Six others will go in the Champions Mile, including Ka Ying Star, the 5-year-old Cityscape gelding who led through much of the Chairman's Trophy before bowing to Beauty Generation by half a length.

Given his early season slump, even a victory would not ensure a hat trick of honors for Beauty Generation, although Moore feels it really should.

"I think he's in with a serious chance of winning the Champions Mile and getting Horse of the Year for a third time," Moore said. "He's the old boy on the block, so when it's a tight call, he just might get the vote because, allied to his achievements, he's a public favorite and there's that admiration for him."

The QE II Cup pits Exultant against Time Warp with a supporting cast of five.

Like Beauty Generation, Exultant enjoyed a dream season in 2018-19, winning the Longines Hong Kong Vase, the Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup, and the Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup—all group 1s—and reporting second in the QE II Cup behind Japan's Win Bright. He, too, struggled this season, posting only a single win, and finished second to Time Warp in this year's Gold Cup.

"I'm very pleased with him," trainer Tony Cruz said of Exultant. "I think he should win this race on Sunday. It's a smaller field this time, so Exultant will be closer in the run. He was too far back last time and got into trouble. That cost him, and he just couldn't catch Time Warp. I'm still disappointed with how that worked out for Exultant. I think he should have won that race."

Time Warp, a 7-year-old gelding by Archipenko, notched his first win of the season in the Gold Cup as a longshot—but not as long a shot as another competitor in the QE II Cup, Playa Del Puente, who fell just a neck short of winning the BMW Hong Kong Derby in March at odds of 290-1.

The Chairman's Sprint Prize features another generational battle as 5-year-old Hot King Prawn takes on 3-year-old Aethero.

Hot King Prawn has been toiling in top-level Hong Kong sprints throughout his career, compiling a record of 10 wins, four seconds, and two thirds from 17 starts but has only a single win this season. Aethero started the campaign with four victories from his first five starts. He has tailed off since, winning the Jockey Club Sprint (G2) Nov. 2 by 2 lengths from Hot King Prawn.

In the unlikely event none of the big three performs up to snuff, there is a fourth candidate for Horse of the Year—Golden Sixty. The Medaglia d'Oro  gelding swept the 4-year-old classic series, culminating in a thrilling victory in the BMW Hong Kong Derby over the aforementioned Playa Del Puente. He has yet to contest a graded stakes, however, and is sitting out the Champions Day program.

Two important subplots are at play on Champions Day.

Australian Zac Purton and Brazilian Joao Moreira, both former champions, are in a hot race for this season's premiership, and they ride the favorites in each of the group 1 races.

Moore, 70, has hit the mandatory retirement age set by the Hong Kong Jockey Club and will leave at season's end to resume his career in more senior-tolerant Australia.

Moore said it's a bit of a letdown that travel restrictions and health quarantines prevented a stellar list of overseas entries from contesting Champions Day.

"The fact is, without the international runners this year, it's still an important event, but it's not doing what it was put on the racing calendar for," the trainer said. "It's a home-run event, and as things are right now, we're just grateful for that. It provides a great focal point for the sport when you think of all the places that are shut down."