Hong Kong: Staying home, Romantic Warrior looks formidable as ever in Stewards' Cup

When Voyage Bubble went out to win the Stewards’ Cup a year ago at Sha Tin Racecourse, the best horse in Hong Kong had departed Hong Kong.

Romantic Warrior this week last winter won the Jebel Hatta at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, then went to Saudi Arabia and lost an epic battle with Forever Young in the Saudi Cup. Back in Dubai, Romantic Warrior – sapped from his Saudi Cup – took a narrow loss in the Dubai Turf.

This year, Romantic Warrior stays home, no international travel planned, and that is bad news for Voyage Bubble and the seven others in the Group 1, $1.67 million Stewards’ Cup, a one-turn grass mile Sunday at Sha Tin.

Voyage Bubble won the Hong Kong Mile last month and rates as Hong Kong’s best miler, but only if you consider Romantic Warrior something other than a miler. The great horse – and that is nothing close to hyperbole – last raced over one mile in June 2024, when he shipped and won one of Japan’s more important races, the Yasuda Kinen. Go back to the start of Romantic Warrior’s 27-race career (he’s a 20-time winner) and you will see Romantic Warrior won his first four races at six and seven furlongs.

“Romantic Warrior’s got so much natural speed that he could put himself anywhere,” Zac Purton, who rides Voyage Bubble, said to Hong Kong Jockey Club publicity. “If he was going to a 1200-metre race, he’d still lay up and be competitive, and maybe even win it. He’s an amazing horse. He’s clearly a better horse than us. So, we need to find a way to beat him.”

:: Hong Kong: Free PPs, picks, analysis, replays, and live streaming

Good luck with that. The Stewards’ Cup is run at level weights and Romantic Warrior, regular rider James McDonald aboard, has a good draw in post 7. When Voyage Bubble squared off against Romantic Warrior last fall, it was over 2,000 meters, a distance that favors Romantic Warrior, who wore down pacesetting Voyage Bubble to win by 1 1/2 lengths. And shortly after Voyage Bubble’s Hong Kong Mile on Dec. 14, Romantic Warrior, in his second race back from surgery, collected his fourth Hong Kong Cup.

Since his fourth-place finish four Februarys ago in the Hong Kong Classic Cup, where a terrible draw and unfortunate trip proved Romantic Warrior’s undoing, the only Hong Kong horse to defeat Romantic Warrior is Golden Sixty, the last great Hong Kong racehorse before Romantic Warrior. Golden Sixty, a devastating miler who managed to beat Romantic Warrior over 2,000 meters, never raced outside Hong Kong, a deep disappointment to his admirers who hoped to see the gelding’s brilliance on an international stage. Romantic Warrior has made six starts out on the road, winning the Cox Plate in Australia before his adventures in Japan and the Middle East. The horse has nothing to prove. He’s staying home this winter. It’s bad news for Voyage Bubble and every other high-class horse in Hong Kong.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.