Romantic Warrior, the new star of Hong Kong racing, leapt into the world’s Top Ten on with his commanding victory in the Hong Kong Cup on Sunday [Dec 11].
With more than 45,000 in attendance, Sha Tin welcomed the biggest crowd in the region since the same day’s racing three years ago. They were treated to a brilliant performance by the Hong Kong Derby winner, who charged home by 4½ lengths from Japanese-trained Danon The Kid to win the HK$34 million ($4.37m/£3.56m) highlight of the annual Longines Hong Kong International Races.
Ridden by world #1 jockey James McDonald, Romantic Warrior was taking his career record to nine wins from ten starts. The four-year-old, who is trained by Danny Shum, moves up to #8 (from #33, +183pt) on the Thoroughbred Racehorse Commentary Global Rankings – making him the highest-placed Hong Kong-trained horse, one ahead of Golden Sixty (#9 from #5), who pays the price for a third defeat in his six starts after failing to catch arch-rival California Spangle (#11 from #36, +189pt) as he attempted to complete a hat-trick in the Hong Kong Mile.
McDonald was mightily impressed with Romantic Warrior. “He’s got everything a good horse needs and he’s got it in spades,” said the rider.
“This horse has a lot of great attributes but his greatest is that he’s so adaptable at taking a position,” he added. “I promise you, that was really as good as it looked. He was perfect from start to finish today and he’s right up there with any of the other really good ones I’ve ridden, don’t worry about that.”
Romantic Warrior’s TRC Computer Race Rating of 128 was clearly the best of the four-race HKIR, two points ahead of California Spangle. HK Sprint winner Wellington (#33 from #74) and Japan's progressive HK Vase heroine Win Marilyn (#82 from #323) both achieved race ratings of 118.
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