Trainer Tony Cruz and owner Wong Wing-keung are hoping the Japan Racing Association will extend an invitation to Bullish Luck to compete in the Group One Yasuda Kinen on June 8. The two-time Champions Mile hero ran with distinction for third to Good Ba Ba and Armada in Sunday's renewal of the race, in which he failed badly last year after brilliant wins in 2005 and 2006.
"I know they will certainly invite Good Ba Ba and probably [runner-up] Armada, but I'm really hoping they will invite Bullish Luck back as well," Cruz said.
"He is just an incredible horse, a complete freak really, and I was so proud of him running third to those two younger horses. He did us all proud, and there is another big race in him yet."
Bullish Luck seems to have been around forever and indeed he has, having first hit the big time in Hong Kong with a last-to-first victory at the expense of the previous year's Derby winner Elegant Fashion in the 2004 Hong Kong Gold Cup.
Sunday's placing advanced his career figures to 10 wins, five seconds and seven thirds, from 50 starts, and his bankroll of HK$62,385,680 is the most any horse has earned here, with the sole exception of Vengeance Of Rain.
Bullish Luck ran a luckless fourth in the Yasuda Kinen of 2005, with stablemate Silent Witness third, and then won the race in sparkling fashion in 2006. He was not invited back last year as a result of underperforming because of the injuries he received returning from the US$6 million Dubai World Cup, in which he finished third.
"Bullish Luck was a sensation in Japan when he won the Yasuda Kinen two years ago, and his third in the Champions Mile shows he is on the way back," Cruz said. "This is really his time of the season and Sunday's run shows he's getting close to that sort of form again.
"I really think it would be a great thing for the race if he was there in Japan, and I hope the JRA people see it the same way."
Meanwhile, Cruz's Derby winner Helene Mascot must begin an exhaustive series of veterinary tests to see where his future lies in the wake of a negative veterinary finding on Sunday night after his deafeat in the QEII Cup. Cruz was given a certificate by veterinary surgeons that Helene Mascot had suffered a grade two paralysis of the larynx during the race and his career is at the crossroads.
"Our vet Ben Mason will advise on the course of action but one of the things he wants to do is get the horse working on a treadmill, and to be able to have a scope inserted so that they can see how his larynx is operating under pressure," Cruz said.
