Beauty Generation (NZ) Brilliant in Comeback

All-conquering Karaka graduate Beauty Generation (NZ) (Road to Rock) began his latest campaign with another record-breaking performance in Tuesday’s HK$3.25 million Group 3 Celebration Cup (1400m) at Sha Tin.

The $60,000 Select Sale purchase has been unbeaten and untouchable since April of 2018, and Tuesday was more of the same. The reigning Hong Kong Horse of the Year extended his unbeaten sequence to 10 with another dominant victory.

Despite conceding at least six kilograms in weight to all of his nine rivals, the world’s highest-rated miler cruised to the lead at the top of the Sha Tin straight and quickly put the result beyond any doubt.

Never asked to fully extend by regular jockey Zac Purton, Beauty Generation kicked away to win by a length and a quarter, breaking the track record with his time of 1:20.05.

“He’s just an amazing horse,” Purton said. “To do what he does defies logic to a certain degree. We only just started to see the best of him at the end of last season, so I believe he’s still got plenty ahead of him now.

“He’s one out of the box. He was carrying the grandstand against horses carrying feather weights on their backs. That was against him and then, as well as that, he had to run into the headwind down the back straight – it’s really strong and no other horse all day has been able to race on the pace and then been able to compete in the finish.”

Trained by John Moore for owner Patrick Kwok, Beauty Generation has now had 31 starts for 18 wins, seven placings and more than HK$88 million in prize-money – the equivalent of NZ$18 million, which is 300 times his purchase price.

“That’s the first part of the mission accomplished,” Moore said. “With the tail-wind in the straight today, I thought he’d have to break a track record to give so much weight away to the others, and he did.

“Zac said he felt it in the last 50 metres, but that’s to be expected when you’re giving away so much weight. We’re right on target now to go and do what we did last season.”

Beauty Generation now holds Sha Tin track records at three distances – 1400m, 1600m and 2200m.

He also runs these remarkable times with extraordinary consistency. Through his ongoing 10-race winning streak, his 1400m times have ranged from Tuesday’s record-breaking 1:20.05 up to 1:21.03, while his 1600m times have been between 1:32.64 and 1:34.31.

The champion galloper was bred by 2018/19 Breeder of the Year Nearco Stud, which also bred the winner of the Group 3 National Cup Day Handicap in Full of Beauty (Darci Brahma).

Beauty Generation was raised and sold by Highden Park, who also celebrated two wins with their NZB sales graduate E Star (NZ) (Ferlax) taking out the first race of the program.