Hong Kong: Beauty Eternal ($25.30) takes early inside lead all the way in Champions Mile

A yielding turf course helped Beauty Eternal record an upset win in Sunday’s Group 1 Champions Mile at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong, a race in which the three-time local Horse of the Year Golden Sixty could finish only fourth.

Ridden by Zac Purton for John Size, Beauty Eternal ($25.30) took the lead quickly and maintained an advantage on the inside throughout to win by 1 1/2 lengths over 29-1 Red Lion.

Voyage Bubble (5-1) finished third, 1 3/4 lengths in front of 1-2 favorite Golden Sixty, who was beaten 3 1/4 lengths.

Golden Sixty, who had won the Champions Mile the last three years, was beaten for only the fifth time in 31 starts in Hong Kong.

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“The ground was not in our favor,” jockey Vincent Ho told Sha Tin publicity regarding Golden Sixty. “When I hit the straight, I could already feel he could not pick up with his usual turn of foot.”

Beauty Eternal, a 5-year-old Australian-bred gelding by Starspangledbanner, won his first Group 1 race in the $2.8 million Champions Mile. In addition, Beauty Eternal has won four Grade 2 and Grade 3 races since last June.

“There was no speed in the race, which gave us the opportunity to lead,” Purton said. “The last thing I said to John before the race was, ‘I think the going is a little better on the fence.’”

The Champions Mile was one of three Group 1 races on Sunday’s Sha Tin program.

Invincible Sage ($13.80) finished 1 1/2 lengths in front of 7-5 favorite California Spangle in the $2.8 million Chairman’s Sprint Prize at six furlongs. Romantic Warrior ($3.80) ran to expectations as the favorite in winning his fourth consecutive Group 1 in the $3.57 million Queen Elizabeth Cup at 1 1/4 miles.

Invincible Sage, a 4-year-old Australian-bred gelding by the Snitzel stallion Thronum, stalked the pace in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize before taking the lead with slightly more than a sixteenth of a mile remaining. Hugh Bowman rode Invincible Sage for trainer David Hall.

California Spangle, winner of the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai on March 30, raced near the front throughout and led in the stretch before he was passed by Invincible Sage.

Romantic Warrior’s remarkable win streak includes the Group 1 Cox Plate in Australia last October. A 6-year-old Irish-bred gelding by Acclamation, Romantic Warrior has won the last three editions of the Queen Elizabeth Cup.

On Sunday, Romantic Warrior closed with a wide rally from the middle of an 11-horse field to take the lead in the final furlong. Ridden by Australian star jockey James McDonald for trainer Danny Shum, Romantic Warrior won by a neck over 4-1 Prognosis, a Grade 1 winner in Japan earlier this year.

“I’m speechless,” McDonald said. “He was beaten” with three furlongs remaining.

“He finds a way,” McDonald said. “I dead-set didn’t have one thing go my way. I had 10 riders dead-set against me and the horse. I had no favors.”

The Queen Elizabeth Cup was Romantic Warrior’s second win of the year, preceded by the Group 1 Hong Kong Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles in February.

Shum said Romantic Warrior will be considered for the Grade 1 Yasuda Kinen in Japan on June 2.

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