Shining Treasures ready to live up to trackwork promise

It may have taken a long time for Shining Treasures to carry his solid trackwork form to the races, but the four-year-old finally indicated he was ready to live up to that billing with a nice effort in the Class Four Macwhinnie Cup (1,400m) last Saturday at Sha Tin.

The gelding landed at the doors of Francis Lui Kin-wai's stables off a mark of 66 after a polytrack win and two thirds on the turf from as many starts in Ireland as Tradition.

As expected, he has taken time to get used to his new surroundings, but has never put a foot wrong on the training track.

Punters were expecting a positive showing from Shining Treasures following an improved trial outing last month for Weichong Marwing and he was sent out at $180 in a 14-runner field. He was given time to find his feet after failing to muster speed when ridden along by Marwing early on, only had two behind him while straightening, lacked a clear run until the 200m and darted home between Samadhi and Supreme Genki to collar the latter by a bob of the head for second.

Things are likely to be rosier for Shining Treasures following this performance and he will likely be able to avoid a drop into Class Five for the time being off his mark of 46.

The Irish-bred is by unbeaten Giant's Causeway stallion Footstepsinthesand, an English 2000 Guineas hero whose seven local winners - the likes of Pure Champion, Mr Vigorous and Hawthorne - having also taken more than a few runs to eventually hit their best stride.

His dam, Carn Lady, a daughter of Woodman, never amounted to anything on the racecourses in Ireland, but she hails from a sound racing foundation as his second dam, Cois Cuain, and third dam, Pitmarie, are twice stakes winners.

23.66

The time Shining Treasures clocked for the final 400m split when second to Samadhi