Sparkle is raring for real action

Caspar Fownes is giving exciting prospect Beauty Sparkle a thorough grounding before he makes his local debut, the raw chestnut completing a forward trial - his third in the space of a month - at Sha Tin yesterday morning.

Beauty Sparkle earned a rating of 73 after two exceptional performances in New Zealand and is nearly ready to rumble after winning a 1,050m dirt spin under Brett Prebble.

Prebble had Beauty Sparkle positioned handier than in his first two trial outings and won by a neck to Me Tsui Yu-sak's smart type, Keen Marie (Mo Hin-tung).

Beauty Sparkle started his career under the care of Lance Noble, already carrying the colours of prolific owner Kwok Siu-ming, where the horse won both left and right handed, making a strong impression each time.

At his first time to the races in a three-year-old maiden at Taupo, Beauty Sparkle showed blistering early speed to race in front, before raw ability saw him kick away for a 2.8-length win over 1,000m.

The debut victory was tinged with greenness as the big-framed youngster wandered about up the straight, but after a three-month lay-off, Beauty Sparkle returned with an even better effort over the same trip.

This time the son of Snippetson jumped widest of eight runners and, after working hard to get outside the lead, the 2-1 favourite seemed to be struggling a touch after turning.

But a slap with the whip from Vin Colgan saw the horse explode away, showing sharp acceleration for such a young horse, winning the race by an ever-increasing 3.3-lengths under a strong hold.

73

The rating Beauty Sparkle arrived after two impressive New Zealand wins