Beauty Legacy needs to focus in Hong Kong feature

There’s a respite from stakes racing on Sunday at Sha Tin, but plenty of talent entered in the featured 11th race, a Class 2 handicap for horses rated 100-80 and carded around one turn at 1,400 meters – about seven furlongs.

At the head of the ratings (100) is the horse to beat, Beauty Legacy, a 4-year-old with plenty of racing whose brain still is playing catch-up to his body. Beauty Legacy won a Sha Tin race at this class level and distance making his Hong Kong debut on Jan. 5, rushing home from 12th to win going away, and followed that with an encouraging fourth in the Hong Kong Classic Mile. But in two starts since, a sixth in the Hong Kong Classic Cup and an 11th-place finish at this class level going 1,800 meters on March 8, Beauty Legacy has devoted his attention to fighting jockey Joao Moreira for his head.

“There’s no doubt he was not able to produce his best his last two starts because of his temper,” Moreira told Hong Kong Jockey Club publicity. “He was really wanting to over-race with me and he was using every bit of energy he’s got fighting me down the back straight.”

One can see strains of this behavior in the best of Beauty Legacy’s 10 starts in Australia, a second of 16 in the Group 1 Australian Guineas about 13 months ago. Called Hawkshot before being purchased and sent to Hong Kong, Beauty Legacy broke from a wide post, tracked the very early pace, then rushed up to make the front and set the pace most of the trip. He appears to be a horse most comfortable when left to his own devices during a race and was ridden that way by Moreira in a recent dirt barrier trial at Sha Tin, going to the front and cruising home first under no urging. Moreira isn’t sure Beauty Legacy will lead Sunday, but a faster pace in this long sprint race should help him settle into a rhythm without fighting his rider.

Decrypt also tried the Hong Kong Classic series for 4-year-olds, finishing eighth in the Classic Mile and seventh last out going 2,000 meters in the Hong Kong Derby. Decrypt, who was third in the 2019 Irish 2000 Guineas, should appreciate the cutback in distance Sunday, though trainer Frankie Lor emphasized the barn still is figuring out just how far – and how – Decrypt wants to race.

Among the others, Dragon General was raised five points, to 95, in the ratings after a last-start Class 2 win where he ran without blinkers for the first time in 11 starts. Promising 3-year-old All In Mind gets in at 114 pounds, 19 fewer than Beauty Legacy, but probably isn’t up to winning at this level.

Race 10, a Class 3 handicap over 1,400 meters, marks the Hong Kong debut of Irish expatriate Beauty Smile, who made an impression in the Irish 2-year-old ranks last year and has shown some flash in his last two barrier trials. Fantastic Show, a major ratings riser, gets as much as 16 pounds from his rivals here and has won consecutive races by more than two lengths, a wide margin in Hong Kong, after adding blinkers.

Trust Me is the sharp horse in race 9, a Class 3 run down the 1,000-meter straight course. Trust Me was scratched lame three starts back but has since put together a two-race winning streak, traveling strongly and hitting gaps with confidence in both those starts.

First post is 12:30 a.m. Eastern.