Beauty Generation (claimed the Hong Kong Horse of the Year award on Friday night.
A three-time Group One victor this term, Hong Kong’s standout five-year-old was also named Champion Miler.
John Moore’s stable star had an outstanding sophomore Hong Kong campaign with five wins from eight starts. The gelding, raced by Patrick Kwok Ho Chuen, improved further this term after placing in two of the three four-year-old Classic Series races last season.
Victorious on his seasonal reappearance in the Gr.3 Celebration Cup (1400m), Beauty Generation soon added a win in the Gr.2 Oriental Watch Sha Tin Trophy (1600m), before achieving a career peak by taking the Gr.1 Longines Hong Kong Mile in December. All three of those triumphs were with Derek Leung in the saddle.
Beauty Generation kept on improving in 2018, scoring his second Group One success in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) before the Road To Rock gelding rounded off his season in style by winning the Gr.1 Champions Mile at the inaugural Champions Day meeting.
The title gave trainer John Moore his sixth consecutive Horse of the Year.
“It’s a big relief, there was a lot of competition coming from Pakistan Star, but he put the writing on the wall with his achievements through the season,” Moore told the South China Morning Post.
“When he wins, it’s not always exciting, he just gets out in front or on the speed and wins the big ones.
“I brought him back from what we thought was a 2,000m horse and made him a miler and here we are enjoying the fruits of all his successes on the stage of Horse of the Year – it’s amazing.
Beauty Generation was a graduate of Highden Park's 2014 Select Yearling draft at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale. Purchased by Kylie Bax’ Hermes Syndications for $60,000 the son of Road To Rock initially raced in Australia under the name Montaigne where he won twice and was runner-up to Tarzino in the Gr.1 Rosehill Guineas (2000m).
The outstanding five-year-old was bred by Greg Tomlinson’s Nearco Stud.
In addition to the Horse of the Year title, Beauty Generation was also named Hong Kong’s Champion Miler.
The award for Champion Griffin went to Pick Number One, a son of Darci Brahma who was bred by Luigi Muollo’s Explosive Breeding Ltd and fell short of his $80,000 reserve in two trips through the Karaka sale ring in 2016 – the Premier Sale and the Ready to Run Sale.
Trained by Danny Shum for owner Yo Mo Man, the three-year-old began his Hong Kong racing career this season with five impressive wins from seven starts and more than HK$4.74 million (NZ$890,000) in stakes.
