One day at Sha Tin, they’ll throw a big farewell party for Romantic Warrior.
Sunday will essentially be that when Romantic Warrior contests the Hong Kong International Cup, a race he has won for the past two years.
Hong Kong racing has experienced an extended honeymoon; two once-in-a-lifetime horses in the same imperious era.
Romantic Warrior’s great contemporary, and nemesis, Golden Sixty, was afforded a hero’s farewell in September and a year ago at Nakayama thousands paid homage to arguably Japan’s finest horse, Equinox.
These rose-garland events provide an opportunity to reflect.
After Sunday, Romantic Warrior and his dedicated sidekick James McDonald take an exotic turn, to the Middle East and the Saudi and Dubai World Cups. Beyond that, who knows? The world has never scared trainer Danny Shum.
Eventually, they will gather for Romantic Warrior at Sha Tin for the last time in Romantic Warrior caps, waving Romantic Warrior flags. He will be celebrated as the most important horse in Hong Kong history.
Hong Kong has long been an international stronghold that had peppered rather than bombed the world stage. Romantic Warrior came along, took off and took aim.
Golden Sixty won 26 races and amassed a record AU$33 million and Romantic Warrior 16 races and AU$29 million. Victory on Sunday would put Romantic Warrior ahead on the money list.
Most agree Romantic Warrior and Golden Sixty were Hong Kong’s greatest-ever but they created different impressions, certainly geographically.
Hong Kong is home to more elite horses per capita than anywhere in the world. It doesn’t breed or nurture them, it brings them in.
Two years after Francis Lui bought Golden Sixty for $300,000 at a ready-to-run sale in New Zealand, the great Mick Kinane hid from Angus Gold at a Tattersalls sale in the UK and bought then-unnamed Romantic Warrior for 300,000 guineas on behalf of the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
The two horses would meet in the middle. The fireworks would last at Sha Tin for years. Romantic Warrior would never beat Golden Sixty, who dominated two-nil, but the former would take to the skies while the latter’s feet were kept planted.
When Romantic Warrior beat the Japanese on their home turf in the Yasuda Kinen in June, eight months after beating Australia’s best in the Cox Plate, Hong Kong Jockey Club CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges wrote a blog for the club website.
He said the Japan win “echoed through every major racing jurisdiction and reflects tremendously on Hong Kong”. He added the adulation from the Japanese “was the ultimate measure of their unreserved appreciation of a global champion – and it set the tone globally”.
That day in Japan, Romantic Warrior had 4.6 million social media impressions in 24 hours. “There was saturation newspaper and online coverage in Japan, as well as more than 2400 print and online stories in 12 separate countries, more than 150 separate reports in Hong Kong and 24 reports in the mainland,” Englebrecht-Bresges boasted.
Romantic Warrior beating the best in Japan. (Vision: YouTube)
German-born Engelbrecht-Bresges said globetrotting Romantic Warrior had “epitomised Hong Kong’s resilience and can-do spirit”.
For a mere champion horse, this was a heady achievement.
Zac Purton never rode Golden Sixty and rode Romantic Warrior just once, for a surprise defeat over 2400m.
Great racehorses inspire great insights and eloquence.
Asked to compare Golden Sixty and Romantic Warrior, Purton responded: “Golden Sixty is the best horse I’ve seen in my time here in Hong Kong and people forget that he beat Romantic Warrior in all their clashes, even at the Warrior’s pet distance over 2000m.
“Golden Sixty gave us hope during COVID and brought everyone back to the races coming out of it. It was a unique time but the fact he never travelled will always haunt him.
“What Romantic Warrior has done has been incredible. He’s taken on the world, and in their backyard, and he’s done it going both ways and at different distances. The feeling between the two though is that Golden Sixty was loved and Romantic Warrior is something that’s made them proud.”
Romantic Warrior’s career is expected to peak again on Sunday. If he then pushes on to the UK after dominating Saudi Arabia and Dubai, the horse will have come full circle.
Bred in Ireland at Corduff Stud, his sire Acclamation was a former good but not great sprinter who went on to sire seven international Group 1 winners worldwide. He died this week at Rathbarry Stud in Ireland.
Romantic Warrior’s dam Folk Melody had won one race, a 16-runner maiden at Newmarket for Saeed bin Suroor. She would produce a handful of handy winners - and one champion.
Kinane, the legendary former Irish jockey, had been employed as a talent scout by the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Kinane would purchase horses in Europe and they would then be educated and allowed to furnish before being on-sold in Hong Kong by the club.
In 2019, he found himself at the Tattersalls October Sale. It was his first gig for the HKJC and he wasn’t the only buyer interested in Corduff’s Acclamation colt.
Kinane told the Racing Post in 2023 that he’d been lucky to secure Romantic Warrior and probably wouldn’t be as lucky again. “It's probably all downhill from here! These horses are a rarity,” he said.
Kinane glimpsed at Gold, Sheikh Hamdan’s bloodstock man, as the Acclamation colt entered the sale ring. Gold was on the phone.
“If he would get Hamdan on the phone, I knew I was in trouble,” Kinane told racing.com in 2023.
Kinane hid under some stairs, out of Gold’s line of vision.
Romantic Warrior is a legend of Hong Kong racing. (Vision: YouTube)
“Angus didn’t know who was bidding, he thought he was being run up by the vendor and didn’t get a bid in and I got him!” Kinane said.
“I loved him from the very first look. He was the only horse I sent straight to vet after one view that year. He was the type of horse I was looking for; made like a miler and with enough stamina to hopefully get a little bit more.”
Once bought and destined for the Far East, the colt was sent to the strikingly named Malcolm Bastard for pre-training. At some point, he was gelded.
Ten months after Tattersalls, he was in Hong Kong where he was knocked down to local owner Peter Lau for AU$950,000 at the Hong Kong International Sale.
Lau had not been a lucky owner. His first horse, Australian import King Of Household, had been winless in 25 starts. He then paid a then-record AU$2 million for Household King at the HKJC auction and the horse dropped dead after its second start. Lau’s next horse, Romantic Chef, won one race.
Romantic Warrior was sent to local trainer Danny Shum, whose emotional, infectious reactions to Romantic Warrior’s triumphs, and his embracing of the unknown, lifted Romantic Warrior’s legend. Another trainer may have kept him in the bubble, like Golden Sixty.
Romantic Warrior has won almost every Hong Kong race that counts and a handful away from home that mean even more.
“What Romantic Warrior has done has been incredible. He’s taken on the world, and in their backyard, and he’s done it going both ways and at different distances" - champion jockey Zac Purton
His successful Cox Plate campaign in 2023 is expected to prove a roadmap for future HK champions. He also beat the mighty Japanese in Japan.
Romantic Warrior and James McDonald have proven near indestructible but there are no givens with horses.
Sunday at Sha Tin can’t come soon enough. Victory is likely but not assured for the greatest-ever Hong Kong tourist.
Hong Kong locals will never again experience a tag-team era like Golden Sixty and Romantic Warrior. One kept the home fires burning, the other set the world alight.
