Champion jockey James McDonald was reunited with Irish bred Cox Plate winner Romantic Warrior at Sha Tin on Sunday with the pair combining to win the Group I Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) in an epic battle with Australian bred Deep Field gelding Voyage Bubble.
Romantic Warrior won the Group I Hong Kong International Cup in December and was shooting for his third straight Group I win with a couple of recent trials to bring him to his top.
The son of Acclamation had to dig deep with Voyage Bubble throwing out a determined challenge to miss narrowly by a neck.
The first Hong Kong International Sale graduate to win the BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m), Romantic Warrior became only the third horse since the turn of the century after Vengeance Of Rain and Designs on Rome to snare all three of Hong Kong’s top-level 2000m contests – the Hong Kong Gold Cup, QEII Cup and Hong Kong Cup.
“He (Romantic Warrior) is unreal, he just keeps surprising me – an unbelievable horse. He’s the undisputed champion. He deserves all the accolades he gets. I can’t stress how much of a privilege it is to ride him,” McDonald said, revealing his absolute faith in Romantic Warrior was critical to tactical decision-making.
“He’s the horse that does it all. He makes you look good all the time. His tenacity (and) will to win is phenomenal. I suppose instincts kicked in and (I) went with the flow. When you ride such good horses, you can do what you want to do and even if I made a little mistake during the race, he is probably good enough to overcome it and that was probably my mindset.
“Even though it worked out really, really well, I’ve got that much faith in the horse that you can do things on him that you would normally do.”
Danny Shum was jubilant after Romantic Warrior posted his 13th win from 18 starts and boosted his prize money to more than HK$127 million after being purchased by owner Peter Lau at the 2022 Hong Kong International Sale for HK$4.8 million.
“I had a big concern (about the wide draw) because I didn’t think they (rival jockeys) would let him in and push him three or four-deep,” Shum said.
“I talked to James this morning. I said ‘Give him his chance and if you jump good, you can push him and put him inside.’ James is very smart, he knows what to do.”
Romantic Warrior is the best of 67 stakes-winners by Acclamation and is from winning Street Cry mare Folk Melody, a daughter of Group I winner Folk Opera.
