A fascinating runner is set to make his British racing debut later today as Beauty Destiny lines up in the 6:30 at Newcastle.
The six-year-old son of Star Turn had raced 19 times in Hong Kong, with six victories to his name. Having amassed £670,000 in prize money, he’s evidently a talented sort and it’ll be interesting to see how he takes to racing in Britain.
Andrea Atzeni has ridden him on his last nine starts, winning on five occasions. His sole all-weather effort saw him well beaten into ninth, albeit he improved one applied with headgear thereafter.
Speaking to the Press Association, via Racing TV, Bethell said: “He’s a very exciting horse who I’ve inherited.
“I look forward to running him but it’ll be very much a real learning curve. It’ll be a steep learning curve I would imagine. It’s a big change from Hong Kong racing to race at Newcastle. You couldn’t get more opposites if you tried really.
“He’s done all of his work on the all-weather and he seems to go over it nicely. He needs fast ground ultimately and we’re not guaranteed that at this time of year. So it’ll be very much a case of we needed to learn. We need to start off and it just looked like a suitable starting point.”
Beauty Destiny contends off top-weight, and it looks a trappy affair for this first British start. Fast Track Harry won from a 174-day layoff last time out, and further improvement looks likely. Progressive mare Heavenly Heather was a shock winner here last season, but continues to be on the incline after a career best RPR last time out.
“You don’t win that sort of money if you’re not that talented” – Ed Bethell
Bethell continued to discuss his new recruit, though was very much of the opinion it’ll be an evening of learning.
“He came over quite a while ago. He came over in August last year. We gave him plenty of time to acclimatise, enjoy being here and he’s been at work since December time. I’ve been very, very pleased with where we are at. Hopefully he can start off and run a nice race.
“It’s competitive and he hasn’t run for a long time and it’s a very different style of racing so he’s got a lot to contend with.
“He’s clearly a very talented horse. You don’t win that sort of money if you’re not that talented. He obviously had his reasons for leaving Hong Kong and we’re willing to make a start with him.He’s a lovely horse to have in the yard, to get a horse of that rating.
“I’m just going to get Thursday out of the way and I’ll learn a lot. I’ll learn a lot of where we are at and what we’re going to be doing.”