No one could come close to spoiling Romantic Warrior’s coronation as the first three-time winner of the Hong Kong Cup, as Hong Kong’s best horse – one of the best in the world – coasted to an easy 1 1/2-length victory over the high-class Japanese filly Liberty Island on Sunday at packed Sha Tin Racecourse.
Breaking from the rail under James McDonald, Romantic Warrior stalked the pace from the inside, moved a couple paths off the rail before the second turn, cruised to the lead in midstretch and comfortably held clear a late outside run from Liberty Island in the $4.1 million Hong Kong Cup, the feature among four Group 1s on the Hong Kong International Races program.
He ran his final 400 meters in a blistering 22.68 and has no peer in East Asian races over 2,000 meters and slightly shorter. On Sunday, he clocked 2:00.51 on good turf, considerably faster than par for the race, though well off his stakes-record 1:59.70 from 2022.
Romantic Warrior, overwhelmingly favored Sunday, stormed to a 4 1/4-length win in capturing his first Cup in 2022, then eked out a below-form score in the 2023 renewal, not at his peak after a two-start trip to Australia that yielded a victory in the Group 1 Cox Plate over the same 2,000-meter trip as the Hong Kong Cup.
In February, trainer Danny Shum sent his star 6-year-old Ireland-bred gelding to Japan, where Romantic Warrior landed the Group 1 Yasuda Kinen over 1,600 meters. Sunday’s win marked his seventh straight, sixth in Group 1 competition.
“He was confident and full of energy,” Shum told Hong Kong Jockey Club publicity. “I stayed in the stables the whole time. I didn’t want to go out to talk too much. I work hard, I love my team, and my team has done a great job.”
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Romantic Warrior closed out the Group 1 action after favored Voyage Bubble won his first Hong Kong Mile and odds-on Ka Ying Rising annexed the Hong Kong Sprint in his Group 1 debut. The top-level action began with the 2,400-meter Hong Kong Vase, in which Giavolletto turned in the race of his life, overcoming trouble to win powerfully.
Romantic Warrior, by Acclamation out of Folk Melody, by Street Cry, showed high-level ability from the start of his entirely Hong Kong-based career, and was the best 4-year-old on the circuit during the 2021-22 season. The great Golden Sixty nipped Romantic Warrior in two Hong Kong Grade 1s early in 2023, but with Golden Sixty since retired, Romantic Warrior has taken up his mantel.
Golden Sixty’s owner, to the disappointment of many, declined to race his star outside Hong Kong, but Romantic Warrior presents an entirely different case. Having already ventured to Australia and Japan, the gelding has as a major winter goal the Group 1 Saudi Cup over 1,800 meters on dirt in February. Shum said Romantic Warrior was scheduled to race in Dubai after his Saudi Arabian junket.
Ka Ying Rising, despite never having started in a Group 1, was favored like Romantic Warrior at odds of 1-5 but had to work to capture the $3.34 million Sprint over 1,200 meters. Ka Ying Rising had won his local prep in a course-record 1:07.43 while barely asked by jockey Zac Purton, and Purton said his mount on Sunday overcame testing circumstances. Ka Ying Rising broke slowly, never got the cover he prefers, took pressure much of the trip, jumped a shadow in the home straight, and still got the money.
“He wasn’t at his best today and is better than this and still got the job done,” Purton said.
Ka Ying Rising, breaking from post 11, sat an outside stalking trip, looked like he’d win clear with 400 meters remaining, but was hard-pressed to hold off the John Size-trained Helios Express by a half-length. Japan-based Satono Reve finished third.
Ka Ying Rising has won nine of his 11 starts and has put together an eight-race winning streak while climbing the class ladder. Still just a 4-year-old, his best racing likely in front of him, Ka Ying Rising is a New Zealand-bred by Shamexpress out of Missy Moo, by Per Incanto. His trainer, Australian native David Hayes, won his first Group 1 on the circuit since 2002. Hayes left Hong Kong for several years and returned four seasons ago. For now, Ka Ying Rising will remain in the sprint ranks, though connections didn’t close the door on trying 1,600 meters in the age-restricted Hong Kong Classic Mile later this season.
Voyage Bubble, while not in the same league as a Golden Sixty or Romantic Warrior, has emerged as Hong Kong’s leading miler and soundly defeated 13 rivals in the $3.6 million Hong Kong Mile, a race in which he finished second behind Golden Sixty a year ago. McDonald, winning his first of two Group 1s Sunday, plunked Voyage Bubble down just behind and outside pacesetting Beauty Eternal, took that foe’s measure past the 300-meter mark, and had little trouble holding sway over outside-closing Japan shipper Soul Rush. Beauty Joy, third-longest price on the board, flashed home from last to nab third.
Trained by Ricky Yiu, Voyage Bubble is a 6-year-old Australian bred by Deep Field out of Raheights, by Rahy. A consistent Group 1 performer, he won for the eighth time in 22 starts, clocking 1:33.44, one of the fastest times in Mile history.
Giavolletto delivered an especially impressive showing under Oisin Murphy in the $3.08 million Vase. Marco Botti trains Giavolletto, among the better-staying horses in Europe, and said it was Murphy who encouraged the cutback in distance to 1 1/2 miles in Hong Kong
Murphy had guided his mount through a near-ideal Vase trip until turning for home, whereupon he and Giavolletto, who was loaded with run, found themselves stuck behind horses and shuffled back from sixth to 11th.
“It was all very comfortable until I got to the turn; then I had to wait,” Murphy said. “And of course, then you’re worried that the race is going to get away from you.”
Finally finding a path to unleash a burst, Giavolletto did so ferociously, inhaling the competition with a final 400 meters in 22.82, easily fastest in the field. After looking hopelessly stuck with 300 meters to race, he won by 2 1/2 lengths. Another shipper from England, Dubai Honour, rallied for second, 3 1/2 lengths better than third-place Stellenbosch, the Japan-based favorite.
Botti said Giavolletto’s owners declined significant purchase offers this year, the 5-year-old horse rewarding them with a rich Hong Kong victory. Bred in Ireland, Giavolletto is by Mastercraftsman out of Gerika, by Galileo, and has steadily improved throughout his career, turning in competitive showings earlier this year in staying races in Saudi Arabia and Dubai.
The HKIR program produced its typical mind-blowing handle, $220.6 million bet worldwide on the 10-race card, witnessed in person by a crowd of about 80,000. Impressive – nearly as much so as Romantic Warrior, his legend still growing.
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