Opportunity knocks for Beauty Only in Chinese Club Challenge Cup

For the first time at the current Hong Kong racing season, Beauty Only will start on Tuesday in a race that does not include top Hong Kong miler Beauty Generation.

The Group 3 Chinese Club Challenge Cup at seven furlongs on turf at Sha Tin Racecourse drew a field of 12, but Beauty Generation is not part of the field, awaiting other races in the coming months.

That should provide a measure of relief for trainer Tony Cruz and jockey Karis Teetan, who will team together with Beauty Only, an 8-year-old gelding who won the Group 2 Chairman’s Trophy at Sha Tin last April in his most recent victory. Beauty Only is best known for winning the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile in 2016, a race in which he was sixth behind Beauty Generation on Dec. 9, losing by 3 3/4 lengths.

Typical of his recent races, Beauty Only was slow to begin and rallied in the stretch of the Hong Kong Mile. In the Chinese Club Challenge Cup, run under handicap conditions, Beauty Only shares the role of 133-pound topweight with Winner’s Way, who was 10th in the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint on Dec. 9.

Those two need runners such as Conte (117 pounds) and Morethanlucky (113) to provide a fast pace to aid their late kick.

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Winner’s Way, who will be ridden by leading rider Zac Purton for trainer Cruz, is winless in four starts since a minor handicap at Sha Tin on Sept. 2, the first day of the current Hong Kong season, which lasts until July.

The Chinese Club Challenge Cup will be the group stakes debut for Conte, who has won six of eight starts for trainer John Size. Conte was the two-length winner of a minor handicap at seven furlongs at Sha Tin on Dec. 16 and faces a class test on Tuesday.

There are three other runners in the field of 12 who started on Hong Kong’s international day in December. Born in China was fifth in the Hong Kong Sprint. Nothingilikemore and What Else Buy You were sixth and 13th in the Hong Kong Mile.

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