Manfred Man Ka-leung declared Lucky Sweynesse the best horse of his 21-year training career after last season’s Champion Griffin won Sunday’s Group Two BOCHK Private Banking Jockey Club Sprint (1,200m) and almost broke Sha Tin’s 17-year-old track record.

Lucky Sweynesse stopped the Sha Tin clock just .05 seconds slower than Sacred Kingdom’s winning time in the Jockey Club Sprint’s 2007 edition, back when the event was known as the International Sprint Trial.

The third leg of Zac Purton’s four-timer, Lucky Sweynesse’s Jockey Club Sprint win completed the champion jockey’s full set of Hong Kong’s Group races – the city’s only silverware missing from the Australian rider’s trophy cabinet is a Classic Mile prize.

Man showered both Purton and Lucky Sweynesse with compliments following his galloper’s neck defeat of 2021 Jockey Club Sprint victor Lucky Patch, who bounced back to his form of early last term.

“I think the jockey rode the perfect race for my horse. My horse’s condition was very good, but unfortunately he got the outside draw. He’s still thinking about how to race, but the jockey said he would get the good position. If we’d got a better draw, I’d have been more confident,” Man said.

Purton, whose latest quadruple comprised Running Glory, Oriental Smoke and two Man-trained winners, Circuit Mighty and Lucky Sweynesse, was full of praise for the progressive four-year-old star.

“He’s done it tough from awkward gates this time in, but behind the gates I saw six jockeys trotting their horses up and they’ve all got speed, so I knew it was going to be a bit messy,” Purton said.

“He didn’t begin that great. I didn’t have any option but to take the spot I got, which worked out well with the way the race was run. Master Eight got in my way a little bit just prior to straightening, but I just tried to straighten him and it cost me a little bit of ground as I swung around him.

“I thought it was a soft win. He’s done a good job. He’s a horse on the way up.”

Asked to rank Lucky Sweynesse in the all-time list of gallopers he has trained since he received his Jockey Club licence in 2001, Man did not hesitate to put him on top, above two-time Centenary Sprint Cup champion Eagle Regiment and Chairman’s Sprint Prize runner-up Big Time Baby, with more to come.

“I think this one is better than the other two before. I’m confident to say he can still improve,” said Man, who hopes Longines Group One Hong Kong Sprint (1,200m) contender Lucky Sweynesse can end his two-decade wait to saddle an elite-level winner.

Badel dislocates shoulder in nasty fall on Sha Tin feature day

The Hong Kong Sprint remains the destination for beaten Jockey Club Sprint favourite Wellington, who never looked likely to justify his $1.9 odds in the run and crossed the finish line in sixth place, two and a quarter lengths behind Lucky Sweynesse.

“Wellington had an off day and not a smooth run. We’ll double check in the morning that he’s in good health,” said the three-time Group One-winning speedster’s handler Richard Gibson, whose other top-class sprinter, Cordyceps Six, finished fifth.