Barry and Linda Pont, and Bill and Anne Brecht are indeed lucky to be racing a successful gelding which was never supposed to be.

Lucky Ima Cugat made an impressive debut at Muswellbrook last Thursday.

The three-year-old bolted home in a 1000-metre maiden handicap.

The stunning all-the-way-win was in the super-quick time of 56.50seconds. He came home in a flying sectional time of 33.57 for the final 600m.

The 13 rivals of Lucky Ima Cugat ($5) saw his rump from a distance as he won by 1lengths. Behind the easy win is an amazing story.

‘‘Lucky Ima Cugat was never the horse we thought we would get when we sent our mare, Tegan Sky, to stud,’’ Barry Pont said.

The mare, which is by Royal Academy, had hardly been a success at stud and had produced four foals for just one winner.

‘‘I went to an expert trying to come up with a cross that might bring us a winner,’’ Pont said.

‘‘It was decided that Lucky Owners, which stands at Widden Stud, was the stallion we needed, so we sent the mare to him.’’

Lucky Owners was a $300,000 Sydney yearling purchase which went on to win $HK28million.

He is now proving a great success at stud. Pont got a phone call he was not expecting while his mare was at the stud.

‘‘A representative from the stud called to say the mare was in foal, but somehow she had been served by King Cugat,’’ Pont recalled.

‘‘They made an appointment and a representative came down and spoke to me and told me there had been a mix-up.

‘‘He was upfront all the way and was brilliant as to how sorry the stud was about what had happened.

‘‘They immediately waived our service fee and allowed the mare to stay at the property for free for the year until she went to Lucky Owners.’’

Pont and his part-owners were left with the dilemma of what to do with a horse they were not expecting.

‘‘At first, I suppose, I didn’t want anything to do with him,’’ Pont said.

‘‘But if you let a horse go then it is one you haven’t got a chance of winning with. We all decided to race him. When the time came to name him I was stumped.

‘‘I asked my wife, Linda, and she just said, ‘Well, he is lucky he is a Cugat isn’t he?’ That was it – that was his name for sure.’’

Trainer Steve Hodge has fashioned Lucky I’m A Cugat into a jump-and-run type that will now go to Cessnock for his next start over 900m.

He also has the colt by Lucky Owners.

‘‘We are trying to get the name Strike It Lucky for this one,’’ Pont said with a laugh.