THE Irish-bred gelding Exultant stamped himself as the best middle-distance horse in Hong Kong as he raced to a grinding victory in the HK$25 million Group 1 FWD Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday.

Zac Purton became the only rider in history to have won every Group 1 race on the Hong Kong calendar.

“The feeling going over the line – it was a combination of everything!” Purton said. “I’ve come close to winning this race so many times, it’s been very frustrating and after missing the bob in the previous race, to win this was a sense of relief.”

The Tony Cruz-trained son of Teofilo produced a typically rugged run after it had been a day of disappointment for the rider. He had to ease the defeated young sprinter Aethero after the chesnut bled in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, and then former Horse of the Year Beauty Generation’s head just missed bobbing on the right stride in the Group 1 Champions Mile.

Last time out in the Group 1 Hong Kong Gold Cup, Time Warp stole a march and held Exultant’s late rattle; this time, wise to Moreira’s steadying of the pace up front, Purton made a long run from the 1200m point.

By the time the two horses turned off the home turn, both were already under strong driving; Time Warp soon cried enough and Exultant battled into the clear and held on by three-quarters of a length from Furore, who closed off grittily under Karis Teetan to give Cruz a stable one-two.

Exultant raced as Irishcorrespondant for Michael Halford when third in the Irish 2000 Guineas in 2017.

Purton was still not certain of the win. “I was flat, I was empty – I wasn’t that confident,” he said. “My fella, at the 300-metre mark, was just starting to struggle a little bit. He didn’t have anything else, so I was certainly worried, but my guy, he just kept galloping along and did enough.

“It means a lot to now be the only jockey to have won every Group 1 race in Hong Kong. It’s not an easy thing to do and it’s an achievement I’m very proud of.”

Southern Legend gets the bob on Beauty

THE Caspar Fownes-trained Southern Legend snatched the biggest win of his career in the HK$20 million FWD Champions Mile and deprived Beauty Generation of a historic three-in-a-row.

Southern Legend was supposed to be preparing for a third straight win in the Kranji Mile but Singapore was off the radar due to the global pandemic.

In a head-bobbing victory, the seven-year-old scuppered the great Beauty Generation’s attempt to not only become the race’s only three-time winner but also the first Hong Kong-trained horse to win 19 races.

“We had the opportunity to set Southern Legend and go for the Singapore race, to try and go for three wins in a row there, but when this virus hit we had to change plans pretty quickly,” trainer Caspar Fownes said.

“He’s beaten the best on their day, there’s no doubt about that – when horses were flying, he beat Pakistan Star, Nothingilikemore and now the best horse Hong Kong’s ever seen, Beauty Generation.”

The 9/1 shot held off the favourite to give jockey Vincent Ho a first Group 1 win, after his Classic Series-dominating partnership with Golden Sixty.

“This is all about Vincent, he deserves that more than anyone,” Fownes said of his former apprentice. “He’s been a great kid and he deserves all the success he can get and I think hopefully next season, if the local trainers and all of us can get behind him, we can certainly put him up there to fight it out with Zac (Purton) and Joao (Moreira).”

Ho took the race to Purton and Beauty Generation with 300m to race as he drove his mount from off the pace to take a narrow lead but Beauty Generation rallied all the way. Southern Legend dug in and they flashed past the post together and the outsider had it by a short-head in a time of 1m 33.13s.

“It’s amazing,” Ho said. “There are no spectators here but it’s a Group 1! I’ve been working really hard for it and hopefully there are plenty more to come.”

“I haven’t told him he’s turning eight in August yet so we’ll keep that a bit of a secret!” the trainer joked. “I’ll just try to keep him happy and healthy and I always believe if horses are producing and have the ability to earn money for their owners, we keep going.”

Trainer John Moore said on his defeated champion. “We were gallant in defeat, look at the bobs, the bob is just against him – if he’d got the head down we’d have won. It could have gone the other way, it just wasn’t our day,” he said.

Plans have yet to be made for Beauty Generation’s future, with Moore set to retire from Hong Kong racing at the end of the season and relocate his operation to Rosehill in Sydney.

“I’d like to take him back for a mile race in Australia and then have him stay there at the Living Legends Farm. That’s what I’d like to do but what the Kwok family wants to do is what counts, I don’t know whether they’ll keep racing him or retire him.”

Mr Stunning lands Sprint Prize shock

MR Stunning lived up to his name and cemented his place as one of Hong Kong’s finest sprinters with a 20/1 victory in the HK$18 million G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize.

The Frankie Lor-trained gelding put age and injury woes behind him to become only the third seven-year-old to succeed in the race’s 41-year history.

Mr Stunning was withdrawn from this race last year due to a hairline fracture in his shoulder but capped a successful return with the third Group 1 success of his career and first win since the 2018 Group 1 Longines Hong Kong Sprint.

“He’s a seven-year-old now but this season, for me, he’s always been very close, unfortunately last season he had that shoulder problem but now everything’s good,” Lor said.

The race unfolded perfectly. A gap appeared at the 250m mark and the Australian-bred son of Exceed And Excel burst through to score from Big Time Baby and Thanks Forever.

“Because of the hairline fracture he had, I can’t push him too hard, especially as he is an older horse, that’s why this time I didn’t trial him before this race – we just freshened him up,” Lor said.

Karis Teetan was full of praise for Mr Stunning who took his career earnings to HK$60,843,100.

“I just had so much horse underneath me – I was tracking a few horses who are decent enough to take me into the race and I was just waiting for a gap to open. This horse, his heart is bigger than him, so I knew he would let down as soon as he got that run,” Teetan said.

The John Moore-trained race-favourite Aethero, who broke cleanly to lead, faded to last and was found to have bled from both nostrils.

“It’s disappointing but we’ll make sure he’s alright and then I’ll sit down with the owner and we’ll have to discuss the best thing for him,” Moore said.