Zac Purton is confident Beauty Eternal’s drop back to 1,400m holds the key to the jockey’s bid for a fifth Group One Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday.

The six-time Hong Kong champion jockey knows what it takes to win the HK$13 million feature, having saluted on Ambitious Dragon in 2013 and Beauty Generation in his historic hat-trick in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

He also knows Beauty Eternal better than any other rider after teaming up with John Size’s prolific winner in all 14 starts.

After racing exclusively over 1,600m this season, Beauty Eternal returns to the distance at which he boasts an outstanding record of three wins and a second from four attempts.

The son of Starspangledbanner won the Group Three Premier Cup at seven furlongs at the end of last season and is coming off a last-start second to Voyage Bubble in the Group One Stewards’ Cup (1,600m).

“This is probably his pet distance. He’s been running really well at a mile, but that’s sort of just on the outer limits of his strengths,” Purton said.

“Coming back to 1,400m really suits. It looks a nice race for him, so he gets his chance to put his hand up.”

While Purton has high hopes for Beauty Eternal, he said Lucky Sweynesse demands respect despite a last-start flop when sixth in the Group One Centenary Sprint Cup (1,200m).

Purton was aboard Manfred Man Ka-leung’s multiple Group One winner on that occasion but has been replaced by James McDonald, who piloted Lucky Sweynesse to victory in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup last year.

“It’s obviously hard to beat Lucky Sweynesse,” Purton said. “He’s obviously a very good horse and on ratings, he appears to be the better horse, but my bloke gets to a distance that I think really suits him and I think that helps.”

An eight-time winner, Beauty Eternal will jump from barrier six in the field of 10 while Lucky Sweynesse has drawn eight.

Purton will also ride Colourful Baron, Panda, Eighty Light Years, Amazing Run, Star Club, Stellar Express, Alacrity and Beato on Sunday.

Size’s Stellar Express runs in the Class Three Nga Tsin Wai Handicap (1,000m) after an impressive debut when second to Baby Crystal.

“He gave the impression he was going to be competitive first time out and he did that,” Purton said.

“He’s trialled well since and there’s nothing wrong with the way he’s going.”

Purton has also confirmed he will ride Massive Sovereign in the HK$26 million BMW Hong Kong Derby (2,000m) on March 24 after guiding the Dennis Yip Chor-hong-trained gelding to a stunning first-up win over 2,000m last Sunday.

“He was good. It’s hard to do what he did and it’s going to be even harder to back that performance up again second time out,” Purton said.

“That’s the challenge he faces in what’s going to be his biggest race of the year, so hopefully he can just repeat that performance and give himself some chance.”

Massive Sovereign copped a penalty of 10 points, lifting his rating to 82, after he demolished his rivals by three and a quarter lengths in his Hong Kong debut.

He started his career as Broadhurst in Ireland, winning two of his five starts for Aidan O’Brien.