Romantic Warrior claims ground-breaking Hong Kong Derby success
Tattersalls’ Jimmy George described it as ‘important’, while Mick Kinane, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s European bloodstock agent, said it was ‘a fantastic achievement’, and as Romantic Warrior (4 g Acclamation – Folk Melody by Street Cry) surged up ominously alongside California Spangle (Starspangledbanner) at the 200-metre mark, his victory in Sunday’s coveted Hong Kong Derby (Listed, 2000m) was set to create more history than the tit-for-tat duel to the line worthy of a race of such profile.
Success for the Danny Shum-trained gelding, who was selected by Kinane out of Book 2 of the 2019 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, sees Romantic Warrior become the first ever winner of the HK$24 million race as a graduate of the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Hong Kong International Sale, after his purchase from the auction for HK$4.8 million by owner Peter Lau.
“It’s great for the (Hong Kong International) sale that it’s happened, you couldn’t buy it,” Kinane told Asia Bloodstock News.
“You need an awful lot of luck on your side for that to happen and for things to stay right.”
While the Hong Kong International Sale was represented by its first Derby winner, for Tattersalls this was a fourth winning graduate this century and for European breds a first success since Designs On Rome (Holy Roman Emperor) in 2014, with this year’s thrilling renewal reminiscent of the Irish-bred’s victory in an engrossing tussle with Able Friend (Shamardal).
The last Tattersalls graduate to win the Derby was Helene Mascot (Peintre Celebre) in 2008, while in the last 20 years other winners include Olympic Express (Bishop Of Cashel) (2002) and Viva Pataca (Marju) in 2006 – a race in which subsequent Group 1-winning HKIS graduate Good Ba Ba (Lear Fan) finished eighth.
“It was a fantastic result for Tattersalls, for northern hemisphere breds and for the Hong Kong International Sale,” said George, marketing director at Tattersalls.
“It’s a tribute to the whole concept of the sale and the selection process of Michael Kinane and his team.
“It’s a great result and it showcases the quality of European-bred horses.”
The son of Rathbarry Stud’s Acclamation (Royal Applause) is from the first selections of Kinane, who was appointed to the role in 2019 after a reshuffling in the approach to sourcing horses for resale at the Hong Kong International Sale, which also saw Craig Rounsefell of Boomer Bloodstock take on purchasing duties in the southern hemisphere.
The European breed has proven to be dominant across the globe in races upwards of a mile – including in Hong Kong’s open Group 1 features later in the calendar – so it comes as somewhat of a surprise that the last winner from Europe of the Derby, run over a mile and a quarter, was all of eight years ago.
Kinane, who paid 300,000gns for Romantic Warrior from the Corduff Stud draft, believes that while selecting the right horses remains important with a different set of eyes now casting over the thousands of yearlings on offer in Europe each year, a crucial element is the change in how the northern hemisphere-bred horses are now being prepared for life in Hong Kong in order to keep up with their southern hemisphere counterparts, who have seemingly taken the transition to Hong Kong much more seamlessly.
“It hadn’t been doing so well and we had to make changes and this is the first crop of that change,” Kinane said, who has enlisted the help of trainer Brian Meehan at Manton to help prepare these horses. “We made changes to their preparations for going to Hong Kong and it seems to have stood them in good stead that they were able to hit the ground running in Hong Kong and be able to adapt in Hong Kong.
“We brought those horses to a racetrack twice last year and that Acclamation colt won a barrier trial – they’ve started those in England now – so we’ve trained these breeze-up horses like racehorses. It’s a high risk, because our veterinary is very stringent and you’ll have a few that will fall out, but we felt that we had to have them prepared for Hong Kong in going there.”
Buyers in Hong Kong have typically been guided by success and value as to where they source their horses from.
The Australasian market has dominated import space in recent years, but with increased demand and significant increases in prize-money in Australia – up 82 per cent over the last decade – the prices commanded by horses in the southern hemisphere have seen buyers turn elsewhere, and while success on the biggest stage of all will only help with the allure of the European breed, it is a migration that had already been in motion.
“Romantic Warrior was the big talking point, but he was one of four European-bred winners on the day and by top stallions,” George said. “It just demonstrates the great quality and value for money and I think Hong Kong owners and trainers are increasingly recognising that, so it was an important result, really.
“The reality is that it’s a numerical strength from the southern hemisphere that makes it slightly skewed, but we place a great amount of importance on the Hong Kong market and the Asian markets like Singapore and Macau.
“We’re only too aware that for Australia and New Zealand that part of the world is their doorstep, so it’s tough to compete, but we have to keep trying and that’s why it’s so great to see the horse of the quality of Romantic Warrior making it abundantly clear that there are huge opportunities firing out of Tattersalls and the northern hemisphere.”
For Kinane, Romantic Warrior was immediately identified as a horse capable of sustaining the rigours of Hong Kong but his suitability as a Derby contender was not immediately forthcoming.
Of all 122 stakes winners for six-furlong Group 1 winner Acclamation, Romantic Warrior becomes just the fifth to strike at stakes level at distances over 1800 metres.
He is out of the Street Cry (Machiavellian) mare Folk Melody, herself a daughter of EP Taylor Stakes (Gr 1, 10f) and Prix Jean Romanet (Gr 2, 2000m) winner Folk Opera (Singspiel).
“He was definitely a miler to 1800-metre horse and I thought 2000 metres would be his max,” Kinane said. “But he fitted the bill and his dam side was going to give him the stamina required to hopefully get those middle distances.
“The stallion works and he was just a lovely model and I was keen on him the first time I saw him and it’s nice when things work out.”