Beauty Generation: one of the best horses in Hong Kong’s history

Beauty Generation, one of the greatest horses in Hong Kong history, is searching for a record-breaking third win in Sunday’s FWD Champions Mile at Sha Tin.

The seven-year-old has been named horse of the year in Hong Kong for the past two seasons and since joining the country he has won 18 of his 30 starts – including eight successes at the top-level.

He struggled at the start of the season but has slowly returned to his best and comes here after back-to-back wins at this track. John Moore’s star hopes to dazzle once again on Hong Kong’s Champions’ Day.

Beauty Generation’s jockey Zac Purton, who is just one win behind Joao Moreira in a ferocious title battle, is set to ride again and he said: “I’d never had a horse of his calibre in my career, it was one thing that was lacking, and he finally came along.”

“Every jockey looks for that one big horse in their career. I rode good horses and won big races, but I never had that one horse at that level that I could ride over a long period of time. The others, I’d been on and off at various stages of their career but this guy, I’ve pretty much ridden him right through his time in Hong Kong. I got off him for a few starts but I haven’t missed too many races on him.”

Beauty Generation will renew his rivalry with Waikuku, ridden by Moreira and trained by John Size. The five-year-old, who started his career in Ireland, has beaten Beauty Generation four times this season but was disappointing on his last start.

“I hope he can bounce back,” Moreira said. “My conversation with John Size lately has been that usually when good horses do what he has done they eventually come to a flat spot and it could be the reason for his poor run last start.

“He’s a very good horse and he has done well already this season so there’s no doubt he’s a winning chance.