American St Leger scouting report: Lucky Speed

In this first of our scouting reports on the internationals pre-entered for Arlington Million Day, let's focus on Germany's Lucky Speed in the American St. Leger (G3).

Lucky Speed represents renowned trainer Peter Schiergen, best known for his success with Danedream in recent years. By 2001 Arlington Million (G1) conqueror Silvano, Lucky Speed scored his signature win in the 2013 German Derby (G1). You can see that he was involved in a bit of bumping between foes before driving down the outside with a strong sustained rally:

 

Sidelined thereafter, Lucky Speed resurfaced as a four-year-old. Although he performed creditably in three of four 2014 starts, and wasn't beaten far by eventual Melbourne Cup (G1) hero Protectionist, this probably wasn't the campaign Schiergen had in mind. Indeed, unspecified "health problems" were mentioned in the Sport-Welt stable tour. But for those issues, Lucky Speed could have taken up his international engagements -- Schiergen had given him entries for both Melbourne and Dubai.

Now, however, Lucky Speed's entire program is a foreign venture. He set up shop at Woodbine, and significantly, he added Lasix. Returning to action in the July 19 Nijinsky (G2), he ran a very encouraging fourth. It was just about what you'd hope for from a horse of his profile, resuming from a 10-month vacation, over an inadequate 1 1/8 miles.