Beauty Generation pretty as a picture

– Another day, another Group 1 win for Beauty Generation – and jockey Zac Purton boasted the contest was all over just 50m after the start.

Hong Kong’s best horse continued on his merry winning way at Sha Tin yesterday, notching his sixth Group 1 title as he cruised to a comprehensive win in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m).

It was the seventh straight win for trainer John Moore’s superstar and his sixth of the term, keeping alive the dream he can go through the season undefeated.

This one looked as easy as the others, with Purton confirming that his rivals had no chance after they had gifted Beauty Generation a soft lead from the start.

“It was game over about 50m out of the gates,” he said. “He jumped cleanly and not many of the horses around me were going forward. There was only one horse going forward and it was Beat The Clock.

“I thought riding him as close as they did was going to nullify his turn of foot and then I felt, once I got there, I’d drag the sprint out of him and that’s what I did.”

Purton was prepared for a host of different scenarios – maybe Pingwu Spark would go forward, Conte might make him work harder – but he got his preferred option.

“I always go in there with a set way of how I’d like to ride my horse but I always go in there thinking horses could do this or could do that and always try and be prepared for that,” he said. “But this was one race where I just didn’t think they’d all let me go like they did.”

The margins – Beat The Clock was 1.75 lengths back with Conte a neck further back in third – were not as dominant as usual, but the jockey was not fussed.

“He was back to 1400m, so it’s not his preferred trip and they were always going to get closer to him,” Purton said. “I wasn’t surprised that they were able to do that, you get back up to a mile (1600m) and he’s going to win by further.”

“Everything went exactly to plan. He increased the tempo at the 600m and said ‘chase me boys’ and, with one reminder around the backside, he was gone. He still hit the line and pulled up great.”

Moore revealed Beauty Generation was likely to dodge the Group 2 Chairman’s Trophy (1600m) on 7 April and head straight to the Group 1 C www.scmp.com To take a bet Go to www.tabonline.co.za or www.bettingworld.co.za