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A Tavistock filly entered for Book 1 of the 2019 NZB National Yearling Sale at Karaka in January became a headline lot after her half-brother Beauty Generation confirmed his rating as the world’s best miler in Hong Kong on Sunday.
Karaka graduate Beauty Generation produced another breath-taking performance to brilliantly defend his title in Sunday’s $HK25 million Longines Hong Kong Mile at Sha Tin.
Bought for $60,000 at the 2014 NZB Karaka Select Sale, Beauty Generation is the reigning Hong Kong Horse of the Year. He went into Sunday’s race with victories in seven of his last nine starts.
The Hong Kong Mile was more of the same as he led for most of the race before putting his rivals to the sword in the home straight. He romped to victory by three lengths, clocking a fast time of 1:33.52.Beauty Generation has now had 26 starts for 13 wins, seven placings and more than $HK60.6 million in prize-money. That’s the equivalent of $NZ12.9 million, which is more than 200 times his purchase price.
Beauty Generation’s back-to-back victories have added to a proud recent record for Karaka graduates in the Hong Kong Mile. Glorious Days (Hussonet) won it in 2013, Ambitious Dragon (Pins) in 2012 and Able One (Cape Cross) in 2011.Carlaw Park will offer his Tavistock half-sister as Lot 443 in Book 1 of Karaka 2019.
Beauty Generation (Road To Rock x Stylish Bel by Bel Esprit) was bred by Nearco Stud and was offered at the 2014 sale by Highden Park where he was purchased by former supermodel Kylie Bax under her Hermes Syndication banner.She was acting for Sydney trainer Anthony Cummings, who asked her to buy a colt by his former star Road To Rock, a dual G1 winner by Encosta De Lago.
“There weren’t that many Road To Rocks available that year and Anthony Cummings wanted to have another one in the stable,”Bax recalled.“He had his choice of two from Highden Park but he asked me because he knew that I was really into my pedigrees, nicking and bloodlines and that I might have a different perception on how to choose a horse.
“My choice was not the same as Anthony’s but I went to the vendor and asked which of the two horses she considered to be the better of the two. She confirmed my assessment of the colt from Stylish Bel."I like to look at the speed index compared with the stamina index of the horse. A couple of nice crosses on both the female side and the sire side in certain areas of the pedigree are things that I look for.
“The colt had a great dosage index and he just had all the qualities.”Beauty Generation is one of two foals to race out of the unraced Stylish Bel, a half-sister to Listed winners Victory
Trump (Euclase) and Savage Attack (Made Of Gold).The colt raced for Cummings in Sydney as Montaigne and was placed in the G2 Hobartville Stakes and G1 Rosehill Guineas before he was sold to Hong Kong owner Patrick Kwok.
He left for Hong Kong after the Rosehill Guineas and joined the John Moore stable with a name change to Beauty Generation – and the rest is history.Bax, whose parents own a Matamata stud farm, has invested heavily in bloodstock including the purchase of a breeding property in Kentucky in 2000.
“My father started in the industry when I was nine years old,” Bax said.“I remember when I was a kid watching the Kentucky Derby and that sort of solidified everything for me. I said to my parents, ‘I’m going to buy a farm in Kentucky one day’ and I did!”
Beauty Generation’s win completed a big weekend for Bax and her family as she owns her Saturday’s G1 Captain Cook Stakes winner Danzdanzdance, a horse bred by her parents that she purchased for only $25,000 at the 2016 Select Sale at Karaka.
