Just when Hong Kong racing seems to need a new star, it always seems to find one—or more.
That was the case leading up to the Longines Hong Kong International Races Dec. 11 at Sha Tin Racecourse, and the familiar pattern played out again. With 7-year-old, two-time Horse of the Year Golden Sixty losing to 4-year-old California Spangle in the Longines Hong Kong Mile (G1), it appeared there suddenly was room at the top.
California Spangle can help fill that void, but the hearts of some 45,000 fans who packed the giant grandstand were beating for Romantic Warrior, the favorite in the race immediately after the Mile, the Longines Hong Kong Cup (G1).
The 4-year-old Acclamation gelding worked his way up through the ranks during the 2021-22 season, won the BMW Hong Kong Derby, defeating California Spangle, and finished the term with a smashing win in the FWD Queen Elizabeth II Cup (G1) in his first graded stakes. That earned him honors as the season's most improved horse.
The Derby is the race most coveted by Hong Kong connections and fans follow along with that, giving the winner an instant leg up for support. Romantic Warrior only reinforced the fans' devotion by returning to win his first start of the new season, the BOCHK Jockey Club Cup (G2) in November, the local prep for HKIR day.
Fan support was evident as James McDonald, fresh from being honored earlier in the week as "Longines Best Jockey," revved up Romantic Warrior turning into the stretch of the 2,000-meter (about 1 1/4 miles) Cup. Cheers went up as the gelding started passing rivals with ease, and the noise became a roar as he hit the front.
Not done, and with little encouragement from McDonald, Romantic Warrior quickly opened up a huge lead and cruised home first by 4 1/2 lengths, stopping the timer at 1:59.70.
"This shows how much he has improved going along," McDonald said. "He's got everything a good horse has and he's got it in spades. I didn't think he'd win like that, but the quality of this horse is amazing. His turn of foot is incredible."
Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, singled out Romantic Warrior's performance as a highlight of a day on which local runners captured three of the four group 1 races.
"Romantic Warrior has produced the best 2,000-meter performance I have seen for a long time against world-class competition," Engelbrecht-Bresges said.
HKJC handicapper Nigel Gray, officiating at his final HKIR before retirement, said he will "have an interesting conversation with my international colleagues" about assigning a rating to Romantic Warrior's performance.
"I'd say it would be in the range of about 123 or 124," he said. "Numerically, you could go higher."
Romantic Warrior's ascent into the ranks of stardom has special meaning for the HKJC and its CEO, as he is a product of the Hong Kong International Sale. That project sees the Club purchasing young prospects at some of the world's top sales, then putting them up for auction to local owners.
Romantic Warrior, out of the Street Cry mare Folk Melody, was bred by Corduff Stud and T.J. Rooney and purchased at the June 2021 sale for HK$4.8 million (about US$617,000) by Peter Lau on trainer Danny Shum's recommendation. He was originally selected for the HKJC out of the 2019 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale by former champion Irish jockey Michael Kinane for $396,948.
Shum said after the Derby win that Romantic Warrior was the only horse that caught his eye at the sale.
"I would like to thank the Hong Kong Jockey Club as well for bringing this horse into the International Sale," Shum said. "Actually, the CEO (Engelbrecht-Bresges) also said to me in the stable, 'This is the right one', so we picked the same horse."
Some quality horses finished in Romantic Warrior's wake in the Cup. Danon the Kid was second, with locals filling the next two placings. Two highly touted rivals disappointed badly as Japan's Panthalassa , a group 1 winner in Dubai, and Order of Australia, winner of the 2020 FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile Presented by PDJF (G1T), finished 10th and 11th, respectively.
Panthalassa "started slower than expected," said jockey Yutaka Yoshida. "I thought he would grab the bit at the first turn but he didn't. The pace was slow and he didn't respond."
Ryan Moore, who rode Order of Australia for trainer Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore partners, said it wasn't his horse's day at all.
"He was disappointing. He didn't run up to his best today," Moore said.
The race did produce a potential future star for Japan as Geoglyph finished sixth with a nice effort for jockey William Buick.
"He was checked early in the straight and lost a little momentum," Buick said.
