Lucky Sweynesse storms to Chairman’s Sprint Prize glory
Established as the world’s highest-rated sprinter of 2023, Lucky Sweynesse (Sweynesse) joined elite company with a runaway win in yesterday’s Chairman’s Sprint Prize (Gr 1, 1200m) at Sha Tin.
The four-year-old continued his rise to stardom and edged closer to embarking on an ambitious path of potentially tackling elite races either in Japan or Australia in the coming months with a devastating display of power and speed, gliding over the closing 400 metres in 22.26 seconds.
Going into yesterday’s race already armed with a pair of Group 1 victories this season, the Manfred Man-trained gelding also collected a HK$5 million (approx. AU$963,900) bonus for successfully completing the third leg of Hong Kong’s three-race Speed Series.
Only three other horses – Mr Vitality (Snippets), Grand Delight (Hurricane Sky) and the legendary Silent Witness (El Moxie) – had previously annexed the Speed Series.
Forced to work hard early in the race when taken out a little wider than Zac Purton would have liked, Lucky Sweynesse left no doubt about his superiority over the seven other runners when he surged away by three and a quarter lengths to justify his red-hot starting price.
It was Purton’s first win in the race since Ivictory (Mossman) in 2018 and his fifth overall Champions Day Group 1 win, while Lucky Sweynesse delivered Man’s first Champions Day Group 1 winner.
Purton said the sky was now the limit for Lucky Sweynesse and believes the gelding will continue to get better.
“That was what we were hoping to see today and it was just a matter of whether he could get out of the gates and get himself into a nice position,” said Purton. “To his credit he begun really well today but I had Wellington and Sight Success holding their spot inside me going into the first corner, and trying to make me do a little bit of work, so I was worried doing the next bit of work on him might be a telling factor – but this horse just continues to get better.
“I feel like we’re going to see a better horse again next season. The sky is the limit at the moment.”
Purton explained that Lucky Sweynesse was not like any other sprinter he’d ridden, saying he is not explosive out of the gates and doesn’t travel like a normal willing sprinter.
“He’s very unassuming and once he gets out of the gates, you can ride him anywhere. Inside, outside,” Purton said. “He’s versatile in his races, he can come from back in the field, he’s led, he’s stalked the leader.
“He’s such a lovely horse and he’s very laidback and he conserves his energy for races.”
Asked about how special winning the race was, Purton said: “They’re all special, they’re all different in their own way, horses are different, the connections are different and the path to get here is different so they all mean a lot and obviously this horse for Manfred at the tail end of his career, and maybe the tail end of mine as well, this could be a fitting way for both of us to go out.”
The reigning Hong Kong champion sprinter of last season, Wellington (All Too Hard), who was aiming to become just the second three-time winner of the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, finished third behind Courier Wonder (Sacred Falls).
The world now beckons Lucky Sweynesse who holds an entry for June’s Yasuda Kinen (Gr 1, 1600m) in Tokyo. Another option is to gain a slot in The Everest (1200m) at Randwick in October.
Lucky Sweynesse has not raced beyond 1400 metres and Purton admitted after the race that he is unsure about 1600 metres for the speedster although Man, said he would possibly restrict the horse to distances up to 1400 metres.
“I think, at this moment, we’re thinking about 1200 metre or 1400 metres distance,” Man said. “One mile is still a concern, the distance.
“We’re still thinking. I need to discuss it with the owner first. When we make the decision, we’ll tell everybody.”