Shocking Luck produces top Qld Derby trial

Saturday 13 May 2017, 5:35pm

Shocking Luck is Hong Kong-bound but not before he attempts to win the Queensland Derby following his emphatic win in the Group Three Rough Habit Plate at Doomben.

Shocking Luck drifted from $4.80 to $6 but was untroubled to win by 2-3/4 lengths from Order Again who was heavily backed into $3.40 equal favouritism with Veladero who was 1-3/4 lengths away third.

Although beaten in midweek company at Ipswich on May 1, Shocking Luck handled the sharp rise in grade with ease, confirming the high opinion co-trainer Jamie Richards has held in the gelding.

"He's a big skinny New Zealand horse with a stayer's action and we always felt he would come into his own once he stepped up to 2000 metres," Richards said.

After his next run in the Group Three Grand Prix Stakes (2200m) at Eagle Farm on May 27, Shocking Luck will attempt to emulate Eagle Way who won last year's Queensland Derby before going to Hong Kong where he has raced successfully.

"David Ellis sold this horse to Phillip Mak in Hong Kong and the intention is to run him in the Grand Prix and Derby before he heads overseas," Richards said.

Any concerns Richards held for Shocking Luck on the soft track on Saturday proved unfounded.

"Hopefully the tracks continue to improve because believe me he's a much better horse on top of the ground," Richards said.

"All going well he can hold his form at his next two starts and there's no reason why he can't."

Order Again produced an eye-catching Derby trial as trainer Brian Smith sweats on gaining a start in the blue-riband event.

The gelding earned $25,000 for finishing second but Smith is concerned his overall prize money of $62,000 won't be enough to guarantee a Derby start.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »