The seeds of her training career were only just being sown when Danielle Seib helped the Lee family pick out a yearling at the Scone sale seven years ago.
Bought for $26,000 and by then-untested sire Deep Field, My Sugar went on to race in Hong Kong where he won five of his 13 starts and notched a Group 3 placing.
Now a six-year-old, the horse’s journey has come full circle and he finds himself back to where it all started, returning to Seib’s Goulburn base.
“The owner and I purchased him from the old Scone Yearling Sales for $26,000 when Deep Field was a first season sire,” Seib said.
“I broke him in and educated him for Mr Lee and his wife Sarah (Wong), who is the horse’s owner.
“It was the first yearling sale I went to as a trainer and selected young horses, so I guess it’s a little bit of a feather in the cap.
“I followed his career very closely in Hong Kong and it was very exciting to see him do so well over there.”
A series of niggling issues prompted My Sugar’s owners to send him back to Australia hoping he might enjoy the more forgiving tracks.
The gelding made his debut for Seib in the Tamworth Cup (1400m) last month when he raced on the speed and finished fourth to Banju, knocking up late at his first race for almost a year.
Seib gave him five weeks between runs to recover and My Sugar’s next target will be the Precise Fire Handicap (1400m) at Randwick on Saturday where he has 53.5kg after the claim of apprentice Hannah Williams.
“We planned to give him a good space between his first-up run and second-up assignment and I think Randwick, a soft track, perfect,” Seib said.
“He’s still measuring up here in Australia and probably acclimatising a bit too, but he’s very capable of a forward showing on Saturday.”
With Do This All Day racing at Bathurst on Thursday, Seib will have just one other runner at Randwick, the resuming Amarantz in the Highway Handicap (1400m).
The mare rounded out her last campaign with an 1800m win in similar grade and while Saturday’s journey is at the lower end of her distance range, Amarantz is capable of sprinting well fresh.
“She’s a really good chance on Saturday,” Seib said.
“Her first-up performance last preparation was in a 1000-metre race at Goulburn and the winner, Master Joe, is an out-and-out sprinter who has gone on to win a couple more.
“She ran him to a length-and-a-half there, she’s over 1400-metres on Saturday, fresh and with no weight and she’s a horse who appreciates a race with a lot of tempo, which you’re going to get in a Highway.”
