ADMIRE MARS WINS THE LONGINES HONG KONG MILE

By Darren Winningham | Sunday, December 8, 2019

Japanese raider Admire Mars delivered an emotional LONGINES Hong Kong Mile victory for connections.

Trainer Yasuo Tomomichi stood in tears in the winner’s circle as he waited for Admire Mars to come back to scale.

The familiar dark blue, light blue and white colours of the prominent owner had won races around the world – including a Dubai Duty Free Stakes (Admire Moon in 2007), Caulfield Cup (Admire Rakti in 2014) and now they had a victory on Sha Tin’s biggest day.

Punters rallied into Admire Mars late, but he still started at a big price of $27 for a horse who had won five of his eight starts (including two at Group One level), even if his last run had been disappointing.

In the race Ka Ying Star took up the running as expected, with Zac Purton and Beauty Generation sitting second, while Admire Mars and Christophe Soumillon settled fifth.

When it mattered most though, Admire Mars and Waikuku were left to battle it out, with the younger Japanese galloper holding sway by half a length.

It gave popular Belgian jockey Soumillon his second Hong Kong International Races victory – his other coming in the Mile with Good Ba Ba in 2008.

“When I saw Beauty Generation running this season, he didn’t have the same magic he had last season. That gave me a chance to think that he was beatable, it had already happened twice,” Soumillon said.

“I knew my horse was very strong. Unfortunately, his last run wasn’t that good. He was the best two-year-old in Japan last year and probably the best three-year-old in Japan this year as well.

“I knew he could stay the distance quite well. He had good gate speed and he likes the ground, so I was quite happy. I told the lad before the race when I saw the odds on the screen that there was something wrong there.

"I thought he should have been in the first four favourites. When I saw that, I thought something was wrong.”

“But I rode my race like he was the favourite and it paid off.”

Meanwhile age seems to have caught up to the seven-time Group One champion Beauty Generation – at seven he still runs in races most horses could only dream of, but he is no longer an unstoppable force.

“He was gallant in defeat,” trainer John Moore said of the $2.90 favourite.

As reported earlier in the week by Winno, we may have seen the Hong Kong Horse of the Year run his last race – speculation is rife that he now will be retired.

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