Beauty Joy proved that age is just a number in quite remarkable style to go back-to-back in the Group Three Premier Plate (1,800m), the final Group race of the campaign, at Sha Tin on Sunday.
Before his triumph in the race 12 months ago, Cruz told the owners, the Kwok family, that if his then eight-year-old did not win the race, he would retire him.
That scenario repeated itself this campaign, with Cruz alluding just weeks ago that he would once again be retired following his Premier Plate run, but his nine-year-old warrior just continues to defy expectations.
“I said to Simon Kwok, the owner, last year when he ran this race when he was an eight-year-old, I said ‘if he wins we’ll keep going for another season, if we lose we’ll retire him’,” Cruz said.
“Well he has won again, and he just said to me it looks like we’ll keep going. We’ll run one more race in the Racehorse Owners’ Association Cup [on July 12] and then make the final decision.
“At the age of 10, it could be a bit too old for him. He’s been a very genuine horse – a very difficult horse to race, but he’s got a fighting heart.”
Settled midfield under Moreira, the Brazilian jockey took his mount off the fence as the field turned into the straight, before spying an ambitious gap between Romantic Thor and Ka Ying Generation.
Like so many times this season, Moreira got it spot on and wove through into the open, spurting clear at the perfect time and beat the fast-finishing Light Years Charm by half a length, the horse who beat him three weeks ago in the Group Three Lion Rock Trophy (1,600m).
There are not many horses running around Sha Tin and Happy Valley at the age of nine, and far fewer are winning Group races.
In fact, the last nine-year-old to win any Group race in Hong Kong was Able One, who secured the 2011 Group One Hong Kong Mile, with Bullish Luck’s 2008 Group Three Centenary Vase (1,800m) the only other in the last 20 years.
Cruz now stands alone as the most successful trainer in the race, with Moreira moving to three wins in the race, and a lot of praise was heaped on the shoulders of ‘The Magic Man’.
“I was very confident today – I got Joao to ride him and was fully confident. Joao rode a perfect race and I’m so happy,” Cruz said.
“In the past, a lot of times it was the weight that slowed him down. I said to Joao ‘this time, make an outside run but if you can pierce through the field, then go ahead as he’s got the heart to go through it’. All credit to Joao.”
David Eustace’s Light Years Charm continued his resurgence with a game second on his first try beyond the mile, while Romantic Thor ran a game third, beating Eustace’s other runner Silvery Breeze.
The victory was part of a double for Moreira, who also saluted aboard Winning Machine in the Class Five Spessartine Garnet Handicap (1,400m) for trainer Caspar Fownes.
