Moore’s Aussie imports dominate early Classic Mile nominations
AUSTRALIAN duo Beauty Generation and Eagle Way are among the top-three rated horses in the early Hong Kong Classic Mile nominations for the group 1 race.
The John Moore trained Beauty Generation is rated 100 in the race, while Pakistan Star conqueror and stablemate Eagle Way is at the 98 rating.
Moore will potentially take the top three elects in the market given stablemate Rapper Dragon will compete alongside Beauty Generation, but the charismatic trainer believes the Aussie elect could have the edge going into the group 1 race.
“That run was very important for the Classic Mile,” Moore said after Beauty Generation won the Class 2 Violet Handicap at Sha Tin on January 8.
“(Jockey Zac Purton) said he ambled up to them and was going to win the race by two lengths or more but, when he really went for him, Beauty Generation only went so far and bottomed out.
“Putting him in this was very important for the next run because he is only going to improve in fitness in two weeks’ time and his win today just showed his class. He gave a lot of weight to [third-placed] Western Express, who has already had two runs and was fitter than him.”
Beauty Generation gives @zpurton a treble today and will head into 4YO Series a major threat #HKDerby pic.twitter.com/Od8StSxgDB
— HKJC Racing (@HKJC_Racing) January 8, 2017
Eagle Way has not raced since saluting in the Eishin Preston Handicap on the 11th of December, but the Queensland Derby winner is still rated as the second best middle distance runner in Hong Kong by the Jockey Club.
Moore has eight horses nominated for the first major race of the Hong Kong Classic Generation series, but the trainer said he has no intention of running that many gallopers in the group 1 race.
“I’ll enter six for the Classic Mile and hope they get in but I guess probably four will and the other two will miss out,” he said.
“If you look at the list of four-year-olds and their ratings, there are some there with ratings to get a run but they haven’t even raced here – would their trainers want to put them straight in a race like that?”