Trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing often matches three-year-olds Lucky Year and Bayonet in trackwork but when the pair were separated and let loose on the racetrack yesterday they stamped their class with impressive wins.
Lucky Year had already scored by four lengths on debut in late March and backed that up with a fighting win in Class Three, while Bayonet was on debut yet toyed with his Class Four rivals down the straight.
"They are both pretty good horses with lots of improvement to come," said Shum, who purchased both horses out of trials in Australia and has galloped them together since early February, a turf gallop on Thursday morning raising confidence levels with both horses.
Lucky Year's win showed an element of toughness to go with the obvious natural talent, fighting off Strathmore when challenged in the straight, albeit with a 16-pound pull in the weights with Keith Yeung Ming-lun aboard.
"He learnt today how to fight back," Shum said. "He has got good speed, you can put him anywhere - you can push and lead or take a sit - but it was good that he had to fight."
Yeung led and Lucky Year had to withstand some pressure in the early and middle stages and it seemed as though Strathmore had the winner beaten a few times in the straight.
"He is a clever horse and he will only do what you ask him to do," Yeung said. "He is a really nice horse. He will end up getting a mile, because he doesn't overdo it."
Bayonet produced a nice trial behind subsequent winner E-Super not long after arriving with Shum, but was held back from the races as winning jockey Neil Callan set about educating the speedy youngster at the trials.
"He had been quite strong, so I've been trying to teach him to drop in and settle," said Callan. The three quiet trials probably contributed to the gelding starting 9-1 in a race he dominated from start to finish, jumping from gate six to sit outside leader Peace Combination before kicking away.
"I knew he had some class," Callan said. "He just gives you that feeling, when he gallops he just grabs the ground - he has a good, fast action. He has plenty of scope, so I would expect him to improve quite a bit and keep going up through the ratings. At the moment he is doing it on natural speed, but I wouldn't be surprised that when he settles down with experience, that he will get 1,400m."
