FULL OF BEAUTY 美麗滿載

1st Oct 2019

The black type racing season opened in Hong Kong on Tuesday and Price Bloodstock was there, snapping up the Group 3 National Day Cup with exciting sprinter Full Of Beauty.

Although the five-year-old looked well-placed with a light handicap, the test for Full Of Beauty was the distance – his first attempt at the straight 1000m after winning five of his previous 8 starts, all over 1200m.

And that became an even bigger test soon after the start.

“That was Plan B!” said champion jockey Joao Moreira said later, after the John Size-trained gelding had come from behind to prevail in a tough finish. “I was forced to handle the race that way because he didn’t jump as well as we were hoping. Then he didn’t really travel as well as we were expecting, but when I asked him to go he made the ground up quickly and I knew I was the winner with 200m to run.”

The track was conducive to fast times on the day and Full Of Beauty registered the fastest Group 3 winning time in history over the straight 1000m and Moreira does not think his winning record has ended yet.

“The horse didn’t let us down,” Moreira said. “He’s not fully tuned yet, there’s still some improvement in him and that’s a nice situation to be in. He’s an up-and-coming horse and he has potential. It’s hard to predict what his top rating will be but I can say that he’s still heading forward.”

With earnings of $7.5 million already banked, Full Of Beauty’s biggest assignments lie ahead of him, with the Hong Kong Sprint the immediate target.