Danny Shum expects Romantic Warrior to improve physically from running in the AED1.85 million (approx. HK$3.92 million) G1 Jebel Hatta (1800m) at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai on Friday night (24 January) when the Hong Kong champion chases a 10th Group 1 victory after drawing perfectly in barrier one.
The world’s highest-earning racehorse with prizemoney of HK$177.3 million has not raced since posting a record third consecutive win in the HK$40 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m) at Sha Tin on 8 December and Shum believes the seven-year-old will benefit significantly from Friday’s contest.
“I believe he’s at 80-90% of his best condition. Actually, I don’t really like to measure it this way. If you really want me to give a specific assessment, I would say he’s a little over 80% but not quite 90%,” Shum said.
“In fact, he doesn’t need to be in top form right now, because our main goals are the following two races. For his next race on Friday, we don’t need to push him too hard. This race is mainly to prepare him for the next two bigger targets.”