Lucky Sweynesse faces an indefinite spell on the sidelines, with connections ruling out any comeback timetable as the champion sprinter rehabilitates from suspensory ligament injuries to both front legs.
The Manfred Man-trained seven-year-old, who will turn eight next season, was found to be lame in the right front leg the day after finishing 11th behind My Wish in the G1 Champions Mile at Sha Tin on April 26, and was subsequently diagnosed with what is listed on the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s veterinary record as “both fore suspensory ligament injuries” – a setback that forced his withdrawal from a planned tilt at Japan’s G1 Yasuda Kinen and put his career back on pause.
Speaking exclusively to Idol Horse, co-owner Mr. Cheng Yu Tung said the stable’s sole focus is the horse’s health.
“The horse is doing reasonably well at the moment,” Cheng said. “He has been under the round-the-clock, meticulous care of the entire stable staff and veterinary team, and his recovery progress is ideal.
“We have decided to let him completely rest and recuperate before we even consider a gradual, step-by-step reintroduction to active training. Our primary goal begins and ends with the horse’s health, so there are absolutely no immediate racing plans or comeback timetables.”
Official Jockey Club trackwork logs show Lucky Sweynesse has trotted just once since the Champions Mile – two days after the race – and has not galloped at all, with his rehabilitation instead confined to regular swimming sessions at Sha Tin.
The injury cut short a season that had promised a brilliant mid-career resurgence. Lucky Sweynesse opened his 2025/26 campaign with an unexpected second to sprint star Ka Ying Rising in the HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup, and while an ambitious raid on Japan’s G1 Sprinters Stakes yielded no joy, he proved his versatility at a mile with a magnificent second to Triple Crown champion Romantic Warrior in the G1 Stewards’ Cup.
“I think I’ve won already,” a delighted Derek Leung said after that effort.
The mile experiment then delivered a breakthrough when Lucky Sweynesse held off My Wish, the previous season’s Hong Kong Derby runner-up, to win the G2 Chairman’s Trophy – his first group victory in two years – reigniting elite-level aspirations and prompting an entry for the Yasuda Kinen, a race described as a lifelong dream for the owner’s family. Instead, a below-par run in the Champions Mile brought the fairytale script to a halt, with the suspensory diagnosis providing the explanation.
The setback is the latest entry in a lengthy veterinary file. Lucky Sweynesse was found with substantial blood in the trachea after racing in December 2023, was lame in the right front leg after racing in January 2024, and underwent left fore fetlock surgery following an injury sustained in April 2024 – a problem that sidelined him for a full year. He was again lame in the right front leg after his return in April 2025.
None of this has dimmed his standing though. Lucky Sweynesse swept all three legs of the Hong Kong Speed Series in his spectacular 2022/23 campaign, then captured the G1 Hong Kong Sprint the following season to complete the set of Hong Kong’s top-level sprints. ∎
