Lucky Sweynesse will try for his fifth win on the 2021-22 Hong Kong racing season in the featured ninth race Wednesday at Happy Valley Racecourse.
Just a 3-year-old, Lucky Sweynesse only made his career debut Feb. 9, winning a Class 4 handicap by two lengths in his first start. Now, the gelding, rated 52 for his unveiling, has risen to a rating of 87 and is one of a dozen horses in the last of nine races Wednesday, a Class 2 handicap over 1,200 meters for horses rated 100-80.
The promising colt Tidal Creek, winner of two races in February, and the veteran mare Sprout Wings, who won for the third time in her career May 25, meet for the first time in a handicap at 1 3/16 miles at Canterbury Park in Australia on Wednesday.
There may not be much between them at the finish in a well-matched field of nine. They have both won at the distance at Canterbury and may not be far apart in the race as stalkers.
In 2021, stablemates Creative Force and Naval Crown finished first and second in the Group 3 Jersey Stakes for 3-year-olds at Royal Ascot, one of the lesser stakes of the famous British racing week.
A year later, in a more prestigious race, the order of finish was reversed when Naval Crown edged Creative Force for a narrow win in Saturday’s Group 1 Platinum Jubilee Stakes on the fifth and final day of the Royal Ascot meeting.
I Want One, the Australian 3-year-old gelding, won three of his preceding four starts prior to finishing a quiet fifth of 12 in a handicap for 3- and 4-year-olds at Canterbury Racecourse in Sydney on February.
The loss led to a three-month rest for I Want One that ends on Monday with a start in a handicap at 6 3/4 furlongs at Newcastle Racecourse, north of Sydney.
Nashwa was not quite good enough for the Oaks at Epsom on June 3 but might well be good enough for the Oaks at Chantilly on Sunday.
A fine third in England going 1 1/2 miles last out, Nashwa cuts back to 1 5/16 miles for the Group 1 Prix de Diane, France’s Oaks.
Turin Redsun has gone winless in seven starts during this, his first Hong Kong racing season, but the number that might matter more Sunday at Sha Tin is 113.
That’s the weight Turin Redsun carries in the Group 3 Premier Plate Handicap over 1,800 meters, an impost 20 pounds lighter than top-rated Ka Ying Star and 19 fewer than key contender Tourbillon Diamond.
The American shipper Spendarella finished a game second at Royal Ascot in the Coronation Stakes, but was no match for super-filly Inspiral on a day where favorites won the two Group 1 races Friday.
Inspiral, at 6-5, stormed by most of the field, Spendarella included, capturing the one-turn mile Coronation to remain undefeated after five starts. And Perfect Power, Europe’s best 2-year-old sprinter of 2021, stamped himself as the leading European 3-year-old sprinter this year with an emphatic victory in the Commonwealth Cup.
Last year’s race
Winner: Dream Of Dreams
Jockey: R L Moore
Trainer: Sir Michael Stoute
Owner: Mr Saeed Suhail
Age: 7 Weight: 9st 3lbs
Starting Price: 3/1
Season Form Figures: 1
Previous Best: 1st - Sprint Cup Stakes (Group 1), Haydock (September 2020)
By Paul Jones
Last year’s race
Winner: Creative Force
Jockey: James Doyle
Trainer: C Appleby
Owner: Godolphin
Age: 3 Weight: 9st 1lbs
Starting Price: 5/1
Season Form Figures: 111
Previous Best: 1st - Listed Carnarvon Stakes, Newbury (May 2021)
By Paul Jones
