Beauty Generation goes for 11th straight in Oriental Watch Sha Tin Trophy Handicap

While American racing drifts farther and farther from the era of handicaps, handicaps are nearly all they run in Hong Kong, and despite being handicapped with a mighty burden Sunday at Sha Tin, Beauty Generation will be strongly favored to win his 11th race in a row.

Beauty Generation will lug 133 pounds, including Zac Purton, in the Group 2, $514,875 Oriental Watch Sha Tin Trophy Handicap. Beauty Generation generally wins like clockwork as the best horse in Hong Kong and will be seeking his third straight victory in the Oriental Watch. Last year, he gave Singapore Sling 16 pounds and beat him by a half-length, and in 2017, Beauty Generation, still only a rising star, toted a relatively feathery 118 pounds to a narrow win in this one-turn-mile fixture.

Now Beauty Generation’s official Hong Kong rating stands at a monumental 138, easily the best in the jurisdiction, and Beauty Generation has shown he has no local equal at distances between 1,400 and 1,800 meters. Saturday’s 1,600-meter test perfectly suits Beauty Generation, who has captured the last two editions of the Grade 1 Hong Kong Mile over the same trip. Trainer John Moore remains hopeful that the 7-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding’s owners, the Kwok family, will consent to ship Beauty Generation to Dubai for the $6 million Dubai Turf next spring.

In the nearer term is a try at a third Hong Kong Mile and more immediately the task of giving between 14 and 20 pounds to 10 rivals on Sunday. Singapore Sling, runner-up to Beauty Generation in this race a year ago, is back for another try but makes his first start since finishing third after shipping to Singapore (where else) where he finished third in the Kranji Mile this past May.

Waikuku could be Beauty Generation’s main danger as he gets 20 pounds while making his second start of the season. Four-year-old Waikuku had an exciting 2018-19 Hong Kong season, winning four in a row at one point before perhaps going over the top while facing stronger competition at 2,000-meter trips likely longer than his best in April.

Beauty Generation takes center stage but officially the Oriental Watch shares top billing Sunday with the Group 2, $514,875 Premier Bowl Handicap over 1,200 meters. Ivictory is top-rated at 124 in the Premier Bowl but went winless during his 2018-19 campaign and might better suit 1,000-meter races down the Sha Tin straight course than 1,200 meters around the bend. Just behind him in the ratings are Rattan at 124 and Pakistan Star at 122, the latter cutting way back in distance for his first start of the season.

Drop down farther in the ratings to 111 and find a potentially live class-rising horse in Full of Beauty. The 5-year-old kicked off his Hong Kong season winning the Group 2 National Day Cup sprinting down the straightaway and probably is a better horse at Sunday’s trip. He’s a six-time winner from nine Hong Kong starts, and Joao Moreira rides for trainer John Size, long a potent team on the circuit.