Brett Prebble enjoyed some great times with Lucky Nine. Victory in the G1 Hong Kong Sprint and two G1 KrisFlyer International Sprints in Singapore stand out, but close on the heels of those international-standard wins are a brace in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, back-to-back in 2013 and 2014. Times change – Lucky Nine retired earlier this year, the Chairman’s Sprint Prize is no longer a domestic-only affair and Prebble has a new “Lucky”.

Lucky Bubbles will carry the Australian ace in Sunday’s upgraded edition of the HK$10 million Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m), the fourth leg of the Global Sprint Challenge and one of two Group 1 features at Sha Tin racecourse this Sunday (1 May); the other being the HK$14 million Champions Mile in which Prebble will partner Contentment.

Prebble has always been generous in expressing his admiration and affection for Lucky Nine, a genuine warrior of a horse and twice Hong Kong’s Champion Sprinter. Lucky Bubbles has a long way to go before he can be mentioned in the same terms as Caspar Fownes’s old champ, but the emerging four-year-old certainly has Prebble excited.

“They’re a little bit different as horses,” he said. “Caspar and me always felt Lucky Nine was probably a miler, it’s just he had so many issues he had to train him differently and the horse showed how good he was to be able to do it at the sprint trips. Lucky Bubbles is an out-and-out sprinter, 1400m tops – I don't think he’d ever win over a mile, even in a Class 3!”

Lucky Bubbles has tried the mile, finishing a non-staying fourth in January’s HKG1 Hong Kong Classic Mile behind Sun Jewellery and Werther, no less. But it is at sprint distances that Francis Lui’s charge has thrilled Hong Kong’s racing fans this term, competing seven times for four 1200m successes; rising from a domestic rating of 77 at his first-up win back in October to his current 121 (international rating: 115) for a blitzing win last start in the HKG2 Sprint Cup at the course and distance.

“Lucky Bubbles, as a four-year-old, he still has a fair bit ahead of him,” said Prebble. “He’s taken big steps and he’s defied the handicapper. It’s hard to do that, they normally get stopped by them with 11, 12, 13 point rises, but he’s kept doing it. After his first start this season, I said then he’s a Group horse.”

Lucky Bubbles leapt from a Class 1 win at his penultimate start to a first Group race triumph in the Sprint Cup. The Sebring gelding’s decisive acceleration that day looked brilliant and his final split of 21.80s for the final 400m backed up that impression.

“He ran time, he quickened great and looked impressive – and you know, I think he’s still really not there yet, not fully,” said Prebble. “He’ll run a great race on the weekend, and whatever he does I do think he’ll be a better horse next season.

“Five-year-olds here, they cope with it better – I just think he’ll be more seasoned, the experience he’s gained, the strengthening up – as a five-year-old, that’s the prime age.”

Prebble acknowledges that Sunday’s test is a big one. Lucky Bubbles faces the world’s best, Chautauqua, Buffering and Aerovelocity, a swell as proven G1 stars Peniaphobia and Gold-Fun and fellow talented four-year-olds Thewizardofoz and Amazing Kids.

“He’ll need a little bit of luck from gate one,” said the rider. “Three starts back we got trapped in from gate two, but that day he was against lesser class horses. Those inferior horses couldn’t take him anywhere but this race is full of proper horses, Group 1 horses that will be on the speed – Buffering doesn’t stop, he’s going to be taking me to the furlong if I’m sitting on his bum. Aerovelocity’s probably going to be outside the leader from 14, he’s going to get to the furlong at least – just that ability is going to get you a long way in the straight. So drawing the inside gate, you need luck but you always need luck in racing – if you draw 14 you’re going to need luck. I’d take gate one every day of the week.”

Prebble is hoping Lucky Bubbles will be the first leg of a Group 1 double. One race later he will be astride the John Size-trained Contentment in the Champions Mile, a horse he has already partnered to G1 glory in this year’s Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup.

Contentment won like the star he had always promised to be when taking out that 1400m major by a length and three quarters from Beauty Flame. But despite being a three-time winner at a mile - and once at 1800m in Class 2 - the chestnut has so far been unable to reproduce his very best form at 1600m in the highest grade.

“I just think he really relaxes at the 1400 metres,” said Prebble. “I’m not sure if it’s the tempo, the distance or sometimes circumstance, but I just feel that in the mile races, when I’ve ridden him, he just seems to do too much mid-race. I think it might be that the tempo of the mile races may be a bit slow for him and he gets on the chewy and does a bit of work, and then he can be vulnerable.

“If it’s a properly run race and he relaxes, then I think he’ll run the mile because he’ll save that energy. That’s just my feeling with him – he’s such a big lump of horse I’d be disappointed if he doesn’t run a mile at this level.”

Contentment was three lengths fifth to Beauty Only last start in the HKG2 Chairman’s Trophy at the course and distance.

“He just did too much work last time, he was too keen,” said Prebble. “Hopefully they’ll go a good gallop on Sunday because he’s a good horse. The day I won the Group 1 on him he gave me a great feel. He was strong that day and on the line you wouldn't have said he doesn’t get a mile because he did the best part of his work the last 100 metres. He has a great trainer and he wouldn’t keep putting him over the mile at this level if he didn’t think he’d make a miler.”

“I reckon he’s more wound up for this race than his last,” he opined. “Maybe John has trained him a bit differently with this race in mind – he’s entered for the Yasuda Kinen in Japan, too, and I reckon he’d love it there.”