Four in a Row for Lucky Sweynesse (NZ)

Hong Kong’s latest Karaka-sourced superstar Lucky Sweynesse (NZ) (Sweynesse) kept his winning streak rolling with another emphatic victory in Sunday’s HK$5m Group Two Sprint Cup (1200m) at Sha Tin.

The $90,000 Ready to Run Sale purchase was a luckless sixth in the Group One Hong Kong Sprint (1200m) in December but has been flawless ever since, stringing together outstanding wins in the Group Three Chinese Club Challenge Cup (1400m), Group One Centenary Sprint Cup (1200m), Group One Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m), and Sunday’s Sprint Cup.

Lucky Sweynesse has now had a total of 15 starts for 11 wins and three placings, earning more than HK$31.9m in stakes. That’s the equivalent of NZ$6.48m, which is 72 times his purchase price from Woburn Farm’s draft at the 2020 Ready to Run Sale at Karaka.

The four-year-old was sent out as an odds-on favourite for the Sprint Cup on Sunday, and apart from a few nervous moments when he was slow to leave the starting gates, the result was never really in much doubt.

Recovering to take up a comfortable position in third spot for jockey Zac Purton, Lucky Sweynesse strode forward and moved up alongside four-time Group One winner Wellington (All Too Hard) with ominous ease at the top of the straight.

That top-class rival rose to meet the challenge, but Lucky Sweynesse slowly but surely overpowered him and edged away to score by a length. He stopped the clock at 1:09.15.

“It’s not a nice feeling sitting on him in the starting gates, because you just know he’s going to get it wrong sometimes,” Purton said. “I knew he was going to get it wrong today – he just wouldn’t focus and was moving around too much.

“Once we got out of the gates, it worked out well through the first half of the race. When they backed the speed up and bunched coming to the corner, I had to come out early and let him stride, but he was always going to win.”

Lucky Sweynesse is raced by Cheng Ming Leung, Cheng Yu Tung, Cheng Mei Mei and Cheng Yu Wai, and he is trained by Manfred Man, who is pointing the stable star towards the Group One Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m) on April 30.

“He’s a very special horse for me, and I was always confident that he could perform like that today,” Man said. “Our target is at the end of this month, so let’s see.

“I’ll need to discuss it with the owners first, but I’d like to enter him for a 1600-metre race in Tokyo later in the year. He’s won very well over 1400 metres, so I think he can show the same quality at 1600.”

Vendor	Woburn Farm
Purchaser	J & I Bloodstock (Waikato)
Breeding	Sweynesse – Madonna Mia
Sale	Lot 284, 2020 Ready to Run Sale, $90,000
Bred by	P L Dombroski, Explosive Breeding Ltd & S A Sharrock