Beauty Generation has soft spot

The owners of Hong Kong star Beauty Generation chose a local campaign over international adventures this spring, and from that perspective, things could not be going better.

Rather than travel for the $6 million Dubai Turf on March 30 (a trip for which trainer John Moore lobbied), Beauty Generation stayed home and easily won the Chairman’s Trophy Stakes on April 7. That race was a prep for the Group 1, $2.3 million Champions Mile on Sunday at Sha Tin Racecourse, but the Champions Mile somehow came up a softer race than the Chairman’s Trophy.

What it all means is that Beauty Generation will be a heavy, heavy favorite to notch his ninth straight win and keep his perfect 2018-19 Hong Kong season going for Moore, the Kwok family that owns him, and jockey Zac Purton. Beauty Generation has just six foes in the Champions Mile, and since the race is run at level weights, his far superior form, barring a shock, will carry the day again. Conte, the second-highest rated horse in Sunday’s race, finished nearly eight lengths behind Beauty Generation in the Chairman’s Trophy earlier this month.

Beauty Generation is under consideration for a trip to Japan in June and a start in the Yasuda Kinen, where he could meet Almond Eye in what would be an internationally anticipated showdown, but for now, all he needs to do is produce a standard performance to win.

The 6-year-old Beauty Generation is drawn in post 2, and if things go as usual, he and Purton will head to the lead. Beauty Generation will rate behind another horse when required, but with so few rivals and with such an apparent talent gulf, Purton figures to keep things simple. Beauty Generation already is a three-time Group 1 winner this season, and there is little beyond terrible luck or a sudden unexpected form erosion to keep him from making it four.

Conte has plenty of room to improve from his tepid fifth-place finish in the Chairman’s Trophy, but his best trip appears to be 1,400 meters, not Sunday’s 1,600. Season’s Bloom won the Group 1 Stewards’ Cup on Jan. 28, 2018, and since has taken nine straight defeats, not coming anywhere close to winning a race this Hong Kong season. Singapore Sling ranked high in the 4-year-old class of the 2017-18 Hong Kong season but generally has failed to progress at age 5.

The Champions Mile is carded as race 7, after the Chairman’s Sprint Prize and before the Queen Elizabeth II Cup. Post time is 4 a.m. Eastern.