Lucky Magic (NZ) Continues Ready to Run Reign in Selangor Gold Cup

A dominant victory by Lucky Magic (NZ) (Mendelssohn) in the RM300,000 Selangor Gold Cup (1600m) on Sunday was the fourth consecutive win in the race for graduates of NZB’s Ready to Run Sale.

Lucky Magic was a $35,000 purchase from Book 1 of Karaka 2022, then was secured by trainer HY Cheng for $75,000 from the Ready to Run Sale. He has followed in the recent Selangor Gold Cup-winning footsteps of fellow Ready to Run graduates Black Thorn (NZ) (Redwood), Pasir Pinji (NZ) (Nadeem) and Antipodean (NZ) (Derryn).

Previously the winner of the RM 1m Selangor Mile (1600m), Perak Derby (2000m) and the Penang Gold Cup (2000m), Lucky Magic has now had 14 starts for nine wins, two placings and over RM900,000 (NZ$359,233) in prize-money.

Lucky Magic produced an impressive performance in an incident-packed running of the Selangor Gold Cup on Sunday. He was badly checked during a mid-race incident that saw three jockeys dislodged. But Andre Da Silva let Lucky Magic rip in the straight and he came with big bounds down the outside, dashing to the lead and drawing away to win by three and a quarter lengths.

“Lucky Magic is a superstar,” said trainer HY Cheng. “He lost his momentum when Da Silva had to take evasive action and raced wide thereafter, but he still came home strongly like he always does.

“He will run next in the Sports Toto Challenge Cup (1400m) next month, then the Piala Emas Sultan Selangor (2000m) in December.

“We plan to run him overseas after that, but nothing is confirmed for now.”

The 2025 edition of the Ready to Run Sale will take place at the Karaka Sales Centre from 10am (NZT) on Wednesday 12 & Thursday 13 November, with Breeze Ups to be held at Te Rapa Racecourse on Monday 13 & Tuesday 14 October.