Lucky Quality folly shows importance of patient approach
The main events here are won by a select few trainers and for good reason - they have the experience and patience to let an inexperienced horse build a career rather than rushing him there before his time.
Some of the best products in Hong Kong have come from the unraced PPG sector and been given the patient handling to allow them to arrive as stars over time. And then there are the Lucky Qualitys.
Lucky Quality may or may not become a high class turf horse in the future and, if he doesn't, certainly nobody will ever know if having him thrown to the wolves in the International Sprint Trial played a role.
But it still appeared an impatient throw at the stumps with a lightly raced horse, who was showing signs of real talent and, frankly, it received the reward that such impatience usually attracts.
Walloping lower grade rivals by simply running them into the ground, Lucky Quality suddenly found himself in a race where rivals had no trouble matching his raw speed and they had the mental and/or physical toughness to keep going when he could not. Such is the difference that an established platform of performances makes.
Had the race been a handicap, Lucky Quality's connections might have been justified in rolling the dice but at set weights it appeared foolhardy - especially since the sprinter's qualifications had been established in all-weather races.
Was there something wrong with letting him take steady steps, put the dreams on hold for a few months when a more seasoned horse might have handled the extra pressure?
Hopefully it will be a harmless glitch in Lucky Quality's career that leaves no impact, but it was also the kind of flogging that can turn a promising horse in a different direction and for no good reason. If the latter turns out to be the case, connections will have no-one to blame but themselves.
