The Tony Cruz trained Beauty Only charged home from back in the field to win by
a neck for Neil Callan, clocking 1m 32.84s, making it the second fastest mile
ever run at Sha Tin."I've always thought this horse was a super star," trainer Tony Cruz said.
"His last run was poor but he's a fast-ground horse and he needs a fast-run race, that's what he got today and he's run three seconds faster than last time, so what does that say?"
The win was Beauty Only's first since a career best performance in the December, 2016 G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile. Since rounding off last term with a fine second in the Group I Champions Mile and a close sixth in Japan's Group I Yasuda Kinen, Beauty Only had failed to win in eight races this campaign resulting in talk of retirement.
"Tony said to me that the owners were thinking about retiring him and I said 'please, don't,' because I was sure he could win another top-level one this season, for sure," said winning rider Neil Callan.
"When I got back on him three runs ago, I thought he ran well.
"I looked back at the sectionals, and considering how slowly they went, his final sectional was 22.72 (seconds). He was running those sections when he was winning those Group 1s previously, so I knew he still had something in him if the race was run to suit.
"When he ran in the Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup the time after, again the race
wasn't run to suit but he still ran a good closing split. "There aren't many horses, when they get older, that can still run the last 400 in that time, especially considering the races haven't been run to suit him; he's been at the back and as he's got that little bit older he just doesn't have that sustained sprint from that far out."
With 11 wins from 42 starts, Beauty Only is a half-brother to stakes-winner Dee Dee D'Or and is the best of eight winners from Ali-Royal mare Goldendale.
He is one of 71 stakes-winners worldwide for Aquis shuttler Holy Roman Emperor, who covered 99 mares at Aquis in Queensland last spring.
