A smile spread across the face of trainer Danny Shum and the connections of Romantic Warrior the instant the barrier draw was revealed for Sunday’s (10 December) G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m).
Seven has been a particularly lucky number so far.
“Last year in the Hong Kong Cup we drew seven. Also in the Cox Plate, we drew seven.” said owner Peter Lau, who had picked the slot at random at the ceremony in Sha Tin’s parade ring.
Romantic Warrior has already been the horse of both Shum and Lau’s racing lives. A BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) winner and the jurisdiction’s four-year-old champion in 2022, he has locked horns with other greats of the modern era such as Golden Sixty and California Spangle.
His remarkable victory in last year’s LONGINES Hong Kong Cup is one that will live long in the memory as he demolished a classy international field by more than four lengths, so comfortably that jockey James McDonald could showboat before he had even reached the line.
The handsome bay gelding has also achieved something that even Hong Kong’s biggest equine celebrity, Golden Sixty, has not managed. His team’s laudable plan to campaign him overseas has seen his reputation spread far beyond the shores of the South China Sea.
They chose the long-term strategy of the G1 W.S. Cox Plate (2040m), Australia’s keynote weight-for-age prize, and at the end of October Romantic Warrior would become the first horse from Hong Kong to win it, flying home with clinical timing from McDonald to lead on the line.