Rare debut winner Tycoon Resources out to back up at Happy Valley

Ask Tony Cruz the last time he trained a first-starter to win a Class 4 over 1,000 meters at Happy Valley before Tycoon Resources and even he would struggle to tell you.

Tycoon Resources returns to Happy Valley on Wednesday night for the Class 4 Ewo Challenge Trophy Handicap (1,000m), with the chance to show whether his rare debut win was the start of something more.

Anyone who could recall Cruz’s previous example without the aid of a database deserves a medal. It came 21 years, three months and 24 days earlier, on December 15, 2004, with Captain Happy, a horse even Cruz, for all his sharp racing memory, admitted he could not remember.

“I don’t recall that one,” Cruz said.

Across nearly 30 years of records, only 25 horses have won on debut in a Class 4 over Happy Valley’s 1,000m. Cruz has trained four of them, or 16 percent of the entire list, more than any other trainer and one clear of David Hall, but Tycoon Resources was his first since Captain Happy.

The achievement has often been a sign of better things to come. Nineteen of the previous 24 winners scored again, including Captain Happy, who climbed into Class 3 before suffering two defeats and retiring after breaking down.

The best of the group have gone a long way. Six of the Happy Valley 1,000m Class 4 debut winners reached Class 2 or higher, headed by three-time Group 1 winner Mr Stunning. Country Music chased Silent Witness home in Group 1 company, Flying Machine reached Class 1, and Tour De Force, Moment Of Power and Snap Fit all climbed into Class 2. More recent winners such as Lightning Storm also suggested there was more to come before injury cut his career short.

Tycoon Resources joined the list with a debut that left room for improvement. Well prepared by Cruz through seven barrier trials, he mustered quickly to sit outside fellow first-starter Beauty Show before overhauling that rival inside the final 50m to score by half a length, despite laying in late.

Cruz likes what he has seen from Tycoon Resources since the win, although the weather has become his main concern.

“He’s in top form. You see his barrier trials since then and he has improved,” Cruz said. “Everything about this horse coming up to this race, I’m very happy with him. He is improving all the time and he has potential.

“But with a horse like this one, I only worry about the going. I would prefer to run him on the same kind of going that he won on, but it seems like it is not going to be like that. That’s the only worry I have.”

Cruz had reason to keep one eye on the sky after the rain that produced a yielding track at Sha Tin on Sunday was expected to still be around for Happy Valley. 

Jockey Angus Chung Yik-lai said Tycoon Resources had benefited from a solid grounding before his debut but still expects improvement to come.

“He is whip shy,” Chung said. “Before his first race he hadn’t seen the whip, so in the first race when I gave him a smack he hung in. But it looks like he has improved since that run. His weight is going up and he looks stronger.

“And his most recent trial, although the field wasn’t strong, he gave me a very good feeling.”

Fastest HV 1,000m Class 4 debut winners - Since September 1997 

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓