HK MAR 6 - BEAUTY FLASH COMPLETES GR 1 HAT-TRICK

By Hong Kong Jockey Club | Sunday, March 6, 2011

Beauty Flash, winner of his previous two outings in the G1 Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile and the HKG1 Stewards’ Cup, made it a hat trick of G1 victories at Sha Tin today when defying all challengers in the HKG1 Queen’ Silver Jubilee Cup.

In doing so he put down a serious marker for his next outing, the US$5 million G1 Dubai Duty Free at the Dubai World Cup meeting on 26 March.

This time, dropping down a furlong from his two front-running triumphs at a mile, the chestnut son of Golan was unable to reach the lead from his wide gate, and Gerald Mosse had to be content with a sit behind the two early leaders, Chater Way and Let Me Fight … but when Mosse sent him past the leaders early in the straight, Beauty Flash ran on with what has become his characteristic determination, finding more every time a horse came at him to win by a relatively comfortable half length margin in the end from the Stewards’ Cup runner-up Sunny King and hot favourite Lucky Nine.

“I was a bit worried about the drop down to 1400m because of the different pace of the race,” said Mosse, who had been suffering from mild dehydration earlier in the day, “but this horse had enough speed so he was always there and always ready when I pressed the button.

“He’s a superstar, and I want to say thank you to the trainer and the owner for letting me ride this lovely horse.”

Tony Cruz, the trainer in question, was equally thrilled with the performance of his stable star.

“The plans just all seem to be falling into place,” said Cruz, referring to last week’s HKG1 Citibank Hong Kong Gold Cup triumph for California Memory.

“I visualised this race beforehand and it all seemed to happen exactly as I’d seen it.

“Beauty Flash suffered from bleeding (in the trachea) when he was younger, but he just seems to have grown out of it.

“Meydan (Dubai) is definitely where he’s going next, and I’m not worried about racing left-handed because in New Zealand where he was foaled and raced before he came to Hong Kong he was running that way every time.”

John Moore was impressed enough by Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup runner-up Sunny King to make immediate enquiries about supplementing the eight-year-old, appropriately by Desert Sun, for the 1200m G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen on the same Dubai World Cup card.

Caspar Fownes, trainer of Lucky Nine, has already said that he will wait until the week before the HKG1 Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby, before making a decision on whether Lucky Nine should step up to the classic’s 2000m distance on 20 March.

But this was Beauty Flash’s day - yet again!

He ran the 1400m in 1.21.74 and looked as though he might have gone faster still if Mosse had insisted.
Cruz has already stated that his optimum trip is now either a mile or the 1800m of the Dubai Duty Free.

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