Tony Cruz on Everest outsider and ex-Hong Kong hype horse Joyful Fortune: ‘time healed him’
- Fifteen months on from his Sha Tin seventh in Class Three grade, the once-retired sprinter lines up in the world’s richest turf race
Former Hong Kong hype horse Joyful Fortune is the lowest rated runner in the sixth edition of the world’s richest turf race, The Everest (1,200m), but his former trainer Tony Cruz believes “time healed him” and expects the comeback galloper will “perform well” in the A$15 million event at Randwick on Saturday.
Both of Joyful Fortune’s Sha Tin wins – his first on debut for David Hall before two odds-on flops, and his second three starts into his equally up-and-down time in the Cruz stable – smashed the clock and prompted comparisons with star sprinters.
But Joyful Fortune, who set what was then a Sha Tin 1,000m class record time of 55.07 seconds when he scorched the straight on his July 2020 bow, never realised his full potential in Hong Kong, his soundness issues leading to the Jockey Club’s veterinary surgeons recommending his retirement.
“He came to me from David Hall with a record of knee injuries,” said two-time champion trainer Cruz of Joyful Fortune, whose official Australian rating of 77 is 46 points lower than that his fellow son of Nicconi, nine-time Group One winner and defending Everest champion Nature Strip.
“He won a race with me, and he was lame the next day. There was a consistency of lameness. The Jockey Club’s vets say ‘this horse needs to retire’. When they say these things to me, what do you say back?”
