Horse Racing
Season
Beauty now the best of his Generation as latest LONGINES list puts him on top of the world

By Graham Cunningham
09/11/2018 17:17

Beauty Generation has been recognized as the world’s leading specialist turf miler.
Beauty Generation has been recognized as the world’s leading specialist turf miler.

The accolades just keep on coming for Beauty Generation.

John Moore’s gelding numbered the LONGINES Hong Kong Mile among three Group 1 successes last season and started this campaign as Hong Kong’s Horse of the Year.

An impressive reappearance success in the Celebration Cup moved Beauty Generation within hailing distance of the world’s elite and the Patrick Kwok-owned gelding can now lay claim to being the best specialist turf miler on the planet after the publication of the latest edition of the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings.

Beauty Generation is now rated within 4lb of the best horses in the world.
Beauty Generation is now rated within 4lb of the best horses in the world.

Aussie superstar Winx and John Gosden’s runaway Champion Stakes winner Cracksman top the list on ratings of 130, but Beauty Generation is just 4lb behind them having been raised from 123 to 126 on the strength of a commanding success under top weight in the Oriental Watch Sha Tin Trophy last month.

Moore described his stable star as “like a bottle of the best red wine you could buy” before his latest performance and the manner of that success has helped Beauty Generation leapfrog star Irish filly Alpha Centauri to become the highest rated specialist turf miler in the world.

Beauty Generation puts up a world-class performance to land the Oriental Watch Sha Tin Trophy.

Beauty Generation’s new rating leaves him just 1lb behind the highest rated horse in Hong Kong history – namely Moore’s mighty chestnut Able Friend – and jockey Zac Purton is now hoping the freewheeling six-year-old can maintain his lofty standards in next week’s BOCHK Wealth Management Jockey Club Mile before a second tilt at the LONGINES Hong Kong Mile on 9 December.

“It’s a high rating but I think Beauty Generation deserves it,” he said.

“Yes, he’s done it early in the season and there’s a long way to go so the challenge for John is to try and get him to maintain that form, but he carried a big weight (133lb) against a strong field and ran a very fast time so I don’t think there was any fluke about it.”

Nigel Gray, co-chairman, LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings Committee and Head of Handicapping, Race Planning and International Racing of the Club, said: “Beauty Generation has improved throughout his career in Hong Kong, and has developed into a very high class miler.”

“He’s been impressive in his two victories this season, giving weight and a beating to some very talented horses, and it’s great to see a Hong Kong horse back in the World Rankings Top Ten.”

Beauty Generation will carry a Group 1 penalty against a maximum of eight opponents in the Jockey Club Mile including the Sha Tin Trophy runner-up Singapore Sling and previous G1 winners Beauty Only and Seasons Bloom.