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.
