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Arthur Cooper takes a look at the Hong Kong Cup at Sha Tin…
Romantic Warrior will start a short-priced favourite in his bid to create history by becoming the first horse to claim three successive victories in the Group One (G1) LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m) at Sha Tin on Sunday.
In 2022-23 Romantic Warrior won the two feature Hong Kong 2000m open G1 races – the LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (December) and FWD QEII (April). He goes into the race this Sunday undefeated in his past six starts including the 2023 Hong Kong Cup and two international G1 races – the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley (2040m) and Yasuda Kinen (1600m) at Tokyo.
As with his last start in the G2 trial race over course and distance three weeks ago, Romantic Warrior has drawn the inside barrier and regular rider James Mcdonald could not be happier with the way the horse is going: "He is in superb form and he's going to be awfully hard to beat, he's probably peaking up better than he did last year for the same race, so we're looking forward to Sunday.
"He's just a perfect racehorse. Gate speed, sustained speed, doesn't matter whether it's wet, dry, fast tempo, slow tempo, he's pretty much unflappable over a mile and a quarter.
"I just really enjoy riding him, he's very self-explanatory. Hopefully, he can make it three Hong Kong Cups. It would be really fitting if he could go down as one of the, probably the best, Hong Kong horse to grace this Sha Tin turf. He just keeps racking them up."
Challengers are hard to find.
Japan has won five of the past ten renewals of the race (Hong Kong having won the other five) and this year four-year-old filly Liberty Island appears to be their best shot at victory. The winner of four of her seven G1 races, she won a 2000m three-year-old fillies G1 in October 2023 before winning against open company in the G1 Sheema Classic (2410m) during March.
The other Japanese runner is Tastiera, a winner of the 2023 Japanese Derby and second in the G1 Tenno Sho Autumn (2000m) in October.
The last European or United Kingdom horse to win the race was Snow Fairy in 2010. This year they have five representatives including two – Content and Wingspan – from the Aidan O'Brien stable. It would be a surprise if any of these international runners were to win.
Romantic Warrior will be short in the betting but looks too good for his rivals.