Old allies seek Champions Mile glory
Neil Callan is hoping that Beauty Only’s recent resurgence is a sign that his old ally’s fire has been rekindled ahead of Sunday’s (29 April) Group 1 Champions Mile at Sha Tin Racecourse. The bay was a close second in last year’s edition of the HK$18 million Champions Day feature.
Champion apprentice in the UK in 1999, Callan enjoyed profitable relationships with trainers Kevin Ryan, Michael Jarvis and Karl Burke in England, winning Group 1s with Hibaayeb (Fillies’ Mile), Amadeus Wolf (Middle Park), Borderlescott (Nunthorpe Stakes) and Palace Episode (Racing Post Trophy).
The Irishman – who has also ridden Group 1 winners in Germany and Italy – enjoyed his first three-month stint in Hong Kong in the 2010/11 season, bagging two winners.
Since then Callan has announced himself as one of the strongest jockeys on the Hong Kong circuit, earning the nickname “Iron Man”. He believes Beauty Only, whom he will partner for the 19th time in this weekend’s Champions Mile, has been integral in helping him establish a firm foothold in Hong Kong after a middling start.
“Beauty Only was very important for me arriving in Hong Kong because English and Irish jockeys – if you look over the last 10 years – were struggling to make a mark here,” he said.
“I was doing okay, I was hovering around just below midfield in the table and Beauty Only arrived, and just by chance the owners approached me and asked me to ride him. They said they wanted a strong European jockey for a European horse.”
It was a match made in heaven.
It all began on October 5, 2014 in a Class 3 over 1600m at Sha Tin. Beauty Only was settled in the rear by Callan, a tactic that would become the Italian import’s go-to racing style, and unleashed an explosive burst of speed at the 300m mark. Ridden out for a convincing victory, Beauty Only beat Danewin Express by a length and three-quarters.
“He’d never ran and I trialled him once and he was quite lazy. But he went first-up as a three-year-old in a Class 3 with top-weight, which is nearly unheard of. He absolutely bolted up,” Callan recalled.
The pair then got up to score by a short-head over the same trip at Sha Tin in a Class 2. Three starts later Beauty Only cantered all over his rivals in the first race of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series, storming to a two and a quarter-length victory in the Hong Kong Classic Mile. It was his first Group 1 win at the very first attempt, albeit a locals-only contest.
“I suppose that kind of set me off,” Callan said.
“He won the Classic Mile, which was the lead up to the Classic Cup and then on to the Derby. He ran well in the Derby but since then he’s proved that he’s a top-class miler rather than a 2000-metre horse.”
The pair’s alliance ended after Callan rode Beauty Only to fourth-place behind Maurice in the Champions Mile in 2016. Zac Purton took over, notably winning the Group 2 Jockey Club Mile that November before Beauty Only produced one of his career-best efforts to storm to victory in the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile a month later.
Callan explained: “Hong Kong is a little bit of a merry-go-round, I was jocked off and luckily for me I got back on him and I won another big one on him. I’m on him for the foreseeable future and hopefully I can keep that good vein of form going.”
Beauty Only had been somewhat written off – so much so that connections had considered retirement – prior to his win last time out in the Group 2 Chairman’s Trophy, the selected trial for the Champions Mile. That was the seven-year-old’s first success in 14 races since his Hong Kong Mile triumph.
Despite being sent off at 36/1 and making a slow start, Tony Cruz’s gelding came with his customary late burst to collar Western Express and win by a neck.
Reflecting on the victory, Callan said: “My season’s been tough so it was nice to get on and win the lead-up race to the Champions Mile. It was very good. The race was run to suit and he had nice fast ground, which was the most important thing.”
One of the most exposed campaigners in the top races in Hong Kong, Callan explained how Beauty Only has changed with age, commenting: “He’s a get-back type of horse anyway but he seems to have lost his dash, he used to have a sharper dash, it just means that having a bad draw, 14 horses with a full field sometimes you have to go back a little bit further.”
However, he sees Beauty Only’s age as no barrier to success and is looking forward to continuing the renaissance on Sunday.
“It’s going to be a bit tactical, which we know, but as long as the rain stays away and the ground is good, fast ground, I think he can definitely run a big race,” he said.