Asian Racing
Feng Shui the Chi for Lucency
The newly arrived Year of the Horse and a touch of traditional Chinese Feng Shui weaved its mystical powers for the American import Lucency (Tapwrit USA), when he picked up his biggest win to date in the Philippines with a brilliant win on Sundays Group 3 Philracom 4Y0 and Above Imported – Local Challenge II, over 1650 meters at the Padre Garcia racetrack.
Given a lovely ride by ace jockey Pati Dilema, Lucency found himself with the run of the race as field raced thundered out of the home straight the first time, with Dilema content to sit off the two tearaway leaders in Reverse Merger (Into Mischief USA) and Calculus (Maclean's Music USA). Taking the initiative at the 700-meter point, Dilema went up to apply the pressure to Reverse Merger with both favorites rounding the home turn together; and then soon after the six-year-old chestnut stallion shook off Reverse Merger and darted away for an easy win over Hole in One (Spieth NZ), with Resonant (Practical Joke USA) eight lengths back in third.
Lucency was purchased out of the USA by owner Mr. Joseph Dyhengco, after winning six races for multiple championship winning trainer Genero Garcia of Horseshoe Indianapolis. He is by a son of Tapit USA) in Tapwrit whose stakes wins include the 2017 Belmont Stakes (G1), the 2017 Tampa Bay Derby (G2) and the 2016 Pulpit (RS), and is out of the Giants Causeway mare Crowning Affair (USA). In his 18 runs in the USA, Lucency won six races and placed five times at tracks like Churchill Downs, Aqueduct and Horseshoe Indianapolis and earned the tidy sum of USD $299,000 in stakes; once again highlighting the quality of horses racing in the Philippines.
Dyhengco invited his close friend Mr. Ceaser Daniel Castro to join him in partnership with Lucency who began his local racing career in October of last year, running a nice fourth behind Birchton over 1600 meters at Malvar, and then quickly chalked up his first win twelve days later in a stakes race over 1800 meters again at Malvar. He then went on to produce some great runs in top company including a second to Varatti (Into Mischief USA) in the Eduardo Cojuangco Cup and a second to Tough Customer (Candy Ride Arg) in the Japan Cup.
Frustrated with being the runner up in these feature races Dyhengco, who is of Chinese descent decided that since it was the Year of the Horse, he would call on the old ancient practice of Feng Shui to bring about a change of fortune for Lucency to welcome in the New Year. Feng Shui is the traditional Chinese practice of arranging environments to balance "Chi" (energy) and foster harmony. It is strongly believed that this can sometimes have an immediate effect on your life and bring good fortune. To add further charm, Lucency's racing colors were changed from his royal blue and white starts to a vermillion red jacket for 'Passion and Strength' as recommended by the lucky color guide for the Lunar New Year. The Feng Shui certainly gave off the positive energy needed and did the trick for Lucency.
Prepared by Dante Salazar, the Chestnut stallion would only just now be getting acclimatized to the warmer tropical climate of the Philippines, as compared the temperate continental climate of Horseshoe Indianapolis, where the weather ranges from hot summers to the cold snowy winters. Therefore, he will continue to improve and make his presence felt in the upcoming Group races.
Joseph Dyhengco has been a prominent owner breeder in the Philippines for over two decades; he is the owner of the iconic Cool Summer Farm that was originally founded by the late Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco who is renowned as one the Giants in Philippines horseracing.
Cool Summer Farm is a magnificent showplace farm and state of the art equine nursery in Lipa City Batangas, that houses approximately 200 racehorses that are both locally bred and imported from around the globe. Dyhengco, has for many years been bringing the top bloodlines from the USA to the Philippines to race and stand at stud. Among them have been the highly successful Dance City, Tricks To Doo a record-breaking son of Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday USA), Hook and Ladder (Dixieland Band USA), and more recently he has purchased Firing Line (Line Of David USA). Lucency will prove to be a worthy addition to the stallion roster when his racing days are over.
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