Beauty Generation was a transcendent figure on the Hong Kong racing stage throughout a glorious career and it is only fitting that the Club should farewell this marvellous horse with a special ceremony.
Champion horses have the capacity to quicken the pulse and gladden the heart and Beauty Generation fits comfortably into that category. For John Moore, Patrick Kwok, Zac Purton and Derek Leung as well as stable staff, Beauty Generation was the horse of dreams.
While vanquished rivals will not have relished facing Beauty Generation at the peak of his extraordinary powers, he was an incredible competitor as borne out by the swath of records he compiled.
He will depart Hong Kong for a lush paddock in Australia with 18 victories, including eight G1 successes, two HKIR triumphs, a cluster of track records and a record HK$106,233,750 in prizemoney.
Inevitably, everybody will have their own Beauty Generation highlight. For me, his second Hong Kong Mile win was simply outstanding. Fresh from smashing the 1600m track record at his previous start, Beauty Generation elevated again by obliterating an international cast of equine stars to confirm standing as the world’s premier miler.
He was in a league of his own.
The Club will pay homage one more time to Beauty Generation at Sha Tin on 24 January – fittingly on the same day the G1 Stewards’ Cup, one of the many races to be found among Beauty Generation’s list of credits, is run.
When Beauty Generation resettles at Living Legends in Melbourne, he won’t have to search far for Hong Kong connections given the presence at the farm of Silent Witness, Good Ba Ba and Mr Stunning.
As one door closes, another opens and with Beauty Generation’s successor Golden Sixty returning to competition on 24 January, it is also timely to point to the Club’s purchase of five yearlings from the Magic Millions Gold Coast Sales over the past week.
It is to be hoped a future champion will emerge from the group.
On Sunday at Sha Tin, The Class 1 Egret Handicap brings together many of our top dirt horses over 1650 metres and will be run as the third of ten races. Kings Shield (Zac Purton) will get things his own way on the lead with token pressure from Circuit Glory (Karis Teetan) and Encore Boy (Matthew Poon).
The three highest-rated horses in the field are all entered for Dubai. Kings Shield must shoulder maximum weight, conceding 12 pounds to Elusive State (Joao Moreira). This potentially could be a difference maker but Kings Shield has an outstanding record over the track and distance and, despite the weight he has to carry, remains a win and place chance. He is a much better horse on dirt than on turf.
Elusive State is much better at the weights than the last time he met Kings Shield in November, he is a six-time winner at the track and distance and is again a strong place chance.
Kings Shield, Elusive State, Glorious Artist (Derek Leung) and Red Desert (Chad Schofield) have all been working well, but history shows Red Desert’s best form is over 1200m rather than 1650m.
Glorious Artist is in career-best form and is a place chance along with Circuit Glory. This race marks the first around two turns for seven-year-old veteran Encore Boy.
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