Beauty Generation targeting Celebration Cup three-peat
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Beauty Generation, the Horse of the Year in Hong Kong for the last two seasons, will have his first start since late April in Tuesday’s Group 3 Celebration Cup at seven furlongs on turf at Sha Tin.
The Celebration Cup is one of two Group 3 races on Tuesday’s program, the first group-level stakes of the 2019-2020 season that began in early September.
Beauty Generation, owned by Patrick Kwok, was also named the champion miler of the 2018-19 season. He was unbeaten in eight starts, all at Sha Tin, from early October to late April, ending the campaign with a second consecutive win in the Group 1 Champions Mile at Sha Tin on April 28.
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Trained by John Moore, Beauty Generation has won the Celebration Cup to start his last two seasons in Hong Kong and will be favored to do the same on Tuesday. The 7-year-old gelding will be ridden by Zac Purton, who has been aboard for all nine starts of the current winning streak, which began in the Champions Mile in April 2018.
The $414,546 Celebration Cup is a handicap. Beauty Generation is understandably the 133-pound highweight. He has nine rivals, including Southern Legend, who won the $1.5 million Kranji Mile in Singapore in his most recent start on May 25, and Furore, the upset winner of the Hong Kong Derby for 4-year-olds in March.
Earlier on the Sha Tin program, Purton rides Little Giant in the Group 3 National Day Cup at five furlongs on turf. Little Giant ended the 2018-19 season with a win in the Group 3 Sha Tin Vase at six furlongs on May 26.
The $414,546 will be the shortest race for Little Giant in his 13th career start.
Little Giant, trained by David Hall, is the 133-pound highweight. His main rival is Rattan, who has been assigned 132 pounds. Rattan and Little Giant were second and third behind Beat the Clock in the Group 1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize at six furlongs at Sha Tin in April. Rattan has not started since that race.
