Brilliant Hong Kong Stakes-Winner for Sebring
Leading Australian sire Sebring posted his first Hong Kong stakes-winner on Sunday at Sha Tin when the Sprint Cup HK Gr 2 was captured by exciting four year-old Lucky Bubbles, a $90,000 Inglis Premier purchase from the Three Bridges Thoroughbreds draft.
A Breednet ‘One to Watch’ when he bolted in at Wyong at his second start in August 2014, Lucky Bubbles was subsequently sold to Hong Kong where he is fulfilling his potential.
Previously trained by Bjorn Baker and now with Francis Lui in Hong Kong, Lucky Bubbles has been in hot form of late and scored a dominant last start win over the same course and distance in Class One company.
Having his first try at a Black Type assignment, Lucky Bubbles always looked dangerous for Brett Prebble and strode clear to win as he pleased.
“That was awesome,” said a jubilant Brett Prebble in the aftermath of his exhilarating two-length triumph that puts the four-year-old in the frame for next month’s Group I Chairman’s Sprint Prize at the course and distance.
“When I put him down, his stride – he just lengthened so much further than I’d felt him do for a long time,” said Prebble. “For a little horse he just covers so much ground. That’s probably why he’s so good – his stride is so much longer than other horses.
“He was just gone, he was awesome. I’ve been very fortunate to ride some very good sprinters in my time and he’s coming along, I’ll tell you. For a young horse, the way he does it, he does it at the front end and then he shows that turn of foot at the back end. It’s hard for them to do that at both ends of the race.”
Lucky Bubbles is not the biggest horse and his trainer has given his charge time to develop through the grades. This win came off only a two-week back-up, which raised a few questions.
“I was a little bit worried because he has never had such a quick back-up and he lost 10lb but he was ok. Now he has a month break to the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, so that should be ideal. Hopefully he can measure up against those older Group 1 horses but he is a classy runner,” said Francis Lui.
“He has lived up to our expectations all along and hopefully he can win the Chairman’s Sprint Prize. It will be a tough test but I hope he can further improve and prove to be a Group 1 sprinter going forward.”
Lucky Bubbles was bred by Gilgai Farm and consigned for sale on their behalf by Three Bridges.
Boasting the impressive record of six wins from 12 starts, he is the first foal of stakes-placed Bubble Below, a half-sister by Hussonet (USA) to stakes-winner Lunaspur and three-quarter sister-in-blood to Group II winner Colorado Claire.
Bubble Below was bought by Victorian based Musk Creek Farm at the 2013 Inglis Broodmare Sale for $145,000 and has a yearling filly by Stratum that will be offered by Musk Creek as Lot 216 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale on Wednesday.
Lucky Bubbles is the 20th stakes-winner for Sebring, who has an outstanding draft for the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale starting tomorrow.
