Eight time Group One winner Beauty Generation (NZ) (Road to Rock) has been retired from racing and will live out his days at Living Legends in Victoria. Connections made the announcement following Sunday’s HK$25 million Gr.1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) at Sha Tin where the eight-year-old finished fifth to Golden Sixty.
Hong Kong’s highest-rated galloper of all time – rated the equal of another great miler, Able Friend – bowed out with a Hong Kong career tally of 18 wins from 34 starts, as well as the local all-time record prize money haul of HK$106,233,750.
“I knew it may be on the table,” said Zac Purton, who rode the Kwok family’s champion 28 times.
“It’s a bitter-sweet day. It’s a sad end. He’s been the best horse for me in my career. I’m certainly going to miss him. He was brave again today and wherever he may go in the world, I’m sure I’ll go and visit him in his paddock one day.”
At his peak, Beauty Generation was an incredible force around Sha Tin, claiming two editions of the LONGINES Hong Kong Mile among his eight Group One wins for trainer John Moore – his last three races came under the care of trainer David Hayes.
Bred by Greg Tomlinson’s Nearco Stud, Beauty Generation was sold through Highden Park’s 2014 New Zealand Bloodstock Select Yearling Sale draft for $60,000 to Kiwi supermodel Kylie Bax under her Hermes Syndications banner.
The son of Road to Rock was initially trained in Australia by Anthony Cummings, where he raced as Montaigne, and was runner-up in the Gr.1 Rosehill Guineas (2000m) before he was sold to Hong Kong.
