Beauty Only nips 96-1 outsider Romantic Touch in Jockey Club Mile

Beauty Only’s hallmark late charge snatched the G2 BOCHK Wealth Management Jockey Club Mile this afternoon (Sunday, 20 November) – but only just. Zac Purton drove the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile candidate to a last nod success from stablemate and 96/1 outsider, Romantic Touch.

 

“Today I expected him to win,” trainer Tony Cruz said. “I also expected Romantic Touch to put in a big race, but I didn’t expect him to run second!”

 

Beauty Only was sent off the marginal second pick at 3.3, with last season’s champion miler Sun Jewellery the 3.2 favourite. The latter delivered a strong challenge for honours half-way down the home straight, vying with Romantic Touch at the 150-metre point. But Beauty Only was already at full tilt, casting a shadow on that duo’s stands side flank.

 

“The race was run at a nice tempo for me, I thought, and I came out with plenty of time at the top of the straight – I thought he’d put them away pretty comfortably. I knew coming down to the 200 though that it was going to be a fight, but I always felt he was going to get there,” Purton said.

 

Get there, he did. Beauty Only responded to the Australian’s powerful urging to nick the result by a short-head with the same distance back to Sun Jewellery. The Italian import’s winning time was 1m 33.79s with a final 400m split of 22.29s – it was his sixth win at start 23 in Hong Kong.

 

“He’s a very intelligent horse and I suppose he just does what he has to do and as long as he’s doing that (winning) we’re happy,” Purton said. Hong Kong’s former champion jockey is looking forward to riding the Holy Roman Emperor gelding in the HK$23 million LONGINES Hong Kong Mile next month.

 

“Tony always gets his horses to peak on the big days and he’s left a little bit there for December. He’ll turn the screw now, and we need to,” said the jockey, who notched a four-timer on the day.

 

The win was a second Jockey Club Mile triumph for Purton, the rider having claimed the prize in 2009 with Fellowship, and a fourth for Cruz, who scored previously with Lucky Owners (2003), Egyptian Ra (2008) and Beauty Flame (2015).

 

“Beauty Only has great potential,” Cruz said of the 2015 Hong Kong Classic Mile victor. “He’s a really solid miler and he needs a firm track. There looks to be a lot of kick-back (on the turf) today and Zac said there was and that the horse didn’t really like it. He loves real fast ground.

 

“I believe he can be a big player on International day. He’s a much better racehorse than this time last year. He’s much more professional and he’ll be spot on for the big day – I’m looking forward to it.”

 

Joao Moreira was pleased with Sun Jewellery’s performance, an improvement on the five-year-old’s first-up sixth in the G2 Sha Tin Trophy (1600m) last month.

 

“It was a great run,” Moreira said. “Compared to his last run, it was much better and I expect him to be better again next start.”

 

The race’s hard luck story was Helene Paragon. John Moore’s rising star miler was squeezed out and impeded approaching the final 200m just as Hugh Bowman was unleashing the four-year-old for a sprint to the wire.

 

“He was unlucky,” Bowman said. “He was held up at a crucial stage in the race. You’d expect him to improve on that next start.”