Consolidating status as Hong Kong\u2019s premier sprinter with a facile triumph in the G2 Sprint Cup (1200m) at Sha Tin on Sunday (9 April), Lucky Sweynesse will next attempt to add further lustre to an increasingly imposing record with a tilt at the HK$20 million G1 Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize (1200m) as Manfred Man considers overseas options.<\/p>
The authority contained in Lucky Sweynesse\u2019s one-length win over reigning Hong Kong Champion Sprinter Wellington and Master Eight prompted trainer Man to describe the Sweynesse gelding as \u201cvery special\u201d before outlining ambitious plans for the four-year-old.<\/p>
Boosting his prize money earnings to HK$32,485,200 with an 11th win from 15 starts, Lucky Sweynesse will lead Hong Kong\u2019s arsenal of speedsters in the G1 Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize before being set for a possible shot at the G1 Yasuda Kinen (1600m) on 4 June.<\/p>
The first horse to win six races this season in Hong Kong, Lucky Sweynesse coped admirably with the drop in distance following hollow victory in the G1 Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) on 19 March despite making a ragged start today.<\/p>
\u201cHe looked a bit slow this time (out of the barriers),\u201d Man said before addressing the chances of a Yasuda Kinen assignment. \u201cI think at this moment we will enter June in Tokyo, and then I will need to discuss it with the owner. I will discuss\u00a0with the owner first. I think (he can show the same quality over 1600m) because his last run over 1400m he ran very well. He took a sit and showed us his dash.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s very special for me.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Zac Purton keeps his cool after an awkward start.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Unfazed by Lucky Sweynesse\u2019s notoriously unpredictable barrier manners, Purton revealed the four-year-old again misbehaved in the gates before scrambling from the barriers as expected leader Whizz Kid missed the start badly.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s not a nice feeling sitting on him (Lucky Sweynesse) in the gates because he gets it wrong sometimes \u2013 I knew he was going to get it wrong today,\u201d Purton said. \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t focus, he was moving around too much. It\u2019s just him, he wouldn\u2019t look at the gates.<\/p>
After allowing Lucky Sweynesse to gather and build momentum, Purton was content to sit behind Master Eight and Wellington.<\/p>
\u201cI was still in the spot I thought I would be, but I\u2019d prefer to be there travelling rather than having to fight for the spot. For the first half of the race, it worked out well but then when they backed the speed off and bunched coming to the corner, I had to come out and let him stride but he was always going to win.\u201d<\/p>
Supremely confident in his mount\u2019s superiority, Purton knew the race was in his control a long way from home.<\/p>
Clocking an overall time of 1m 09.15s, Lucky Sweynesse took control with a terminal 21.74s surge over the final 400m to down four-time G1 winner Wellington for the third consecutive race.<\/p>
Hong Kong racing continues at Happy Valley on Wednesday (12 April).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”18649″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Consolidating status as Hong Kong\u2019s premier sprinter with a facile triumph in the G2 Sprint Cup (1200m) at Sha Tin on Sunday (9 April), Lucky Sweynesse will next attempt to add further lustre to an increasingly imposing record with a tilt at the HK$20 million G1 Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize (1200m) as… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":18650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"2normal","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18647"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18647"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18652,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18647\/revisions\/18652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}