Weight favors Ballistic King in Amber Handicap

Ballistic King convincingly outfinished Beauty Legacy getting a 19-pound weight break in a Class 2 handicap on April 12 at Sha Tin. Things aren’t changing much Saturday.

Ballistic King, Beauty Legacy, and 11 others are set to contest the featured ninth race Saturday at Sha Tin, the Class 1 Amber Handicap carded over 1,400 meters (about seven furlongs) around one turn and open to horses rated 100 to 85. Ballistic King got a 7-point ratings hike owing to his 2 1/4-length defeat of Beauty Legacy last month but still only carries 119 pounds Saturday, 14 fewer than top-rated Beauty Legacy.

Decrypt, who finished third in the same race, also returns Saturday and gives seven pounds to Ballistic King. Decrypt and Beauty Legacy both raced in the Four-Year-Old Classic Series this season in Hong Kong, and Beauty Legacy went off as the second choice in the 1,600-meter Hong Kong Classic Mile a little more than three months ago after an eye-catching Class 2 win in his first Hong Kong race after being imported from Australia.

But Beauty Legacy’s struggles began in the Classic Mile, when he started behaving as his own worst enemy, pulling hard on his jockey during the race’s early and middle stages, enervating himself before the homestretch. Trainer John Size cut him back in distance to 1,400 meters on April 12, and though Beauty Legacy tried to get too strong, he simply was outrun early by quicker horses.

Ballistic King squeezed through a narrow gap in midstretch and out-accelerated Beauty Generation, who was finishing decently on the far outside.

:: Download DRF's Guide to Betting Hong Kong Racing

So, if Beauty Legacy won’t relax early in longer races and lacks the fast-twitch acceleration to really kick home at shorter trips, his ceiling is not especially high, and the heavy weight Saturday can bring him down.

As for Ballistic King, he’s a 5-year-old who foundered at the Class 3 level for the better part of two Hong Kong racing seasons. For whatever reason things have clicked recently, and Ballistic King, favorably weighted, could strike again.

:: Hong Kong: Free PPs, picks, analysis, replays, and live streaming

There are two X factors in the feature – first-time Hong Kong runners Amazing One Plus and Arrogant. Amazing One Plus finished fifth in the 2018 Derby at Epsom and won at the Group 3 level in 2019 while based in Ireland with trainer Dermot Weld and named Hazapour. His dirt trials have been nothing to write home about, but Amazing One Plus could easily need turf for a true test. Arrogant, a New Zealand-bred import with group stakes form, also trialed modestly over the Sha Tin dirt track, and both newcomers are tough to read here.

First post for the card is 1 a.m. Eastern Saturday.

◗ Beauty Generation will return to race again during the 2020-21 Hong Kong season, his owners announced Thursday. A multiple Hong Kong Horse of the Year, Beauty Generation will have a new trainer next season, David Hayes, who takes over from John Moore. The 70-year-old Moore sailed past Hong Kong’s age limit for trainers, and the extension he was granted ends at the conclusion of this racing season. Beauty Generation most recently finished second in the Group 1 Champions Mile on April 29.