Beauty Generation the highlight in a canter
By Alan Aitken
With no nuisance rivals to pressure him in the lead this time, Beauty Generation took his second Longines HK Mile on Sunday in a canter that had the world in swoon.
Superlatives flowed as the world's top-rated miler was eased down to win by 3 lengths, with Zac Purton giving him an extended pat down the neck in the run to the line.
The only time Purton was required to ask much of Beauty Generation was as he crossed from gate 12 to establish himself as the pacemaker and it was a procession from there. Japan's Vivlos bowed out from racing with a distant second, cutting Southern Legend from the quinella, but this was a one-horse race.
“That’s what we all hoped we’d see today, I’m just happy for the horse that he’s come out and produced it on a big stage,” said Purton, who equalled Gerald Mosse's 8 wins as the winningest rider at the HKIR meeting. “He has shown everyone how brutally good he can be.”
John Moore is looking assured of back to back Horse Of The Year awards with Beauty Generation and is looking abroad, with the Dubai Turf hinted at as a possible target if he can get agreement from the Kwok family which owns the gelding.