The remarkable progression of Hong Kong racing in recent years is reflected in latest changes to Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s exclusive Global Rankings.
A below-par performance from Golden Sixty on yielding ground at the prestigious FWD Champions Day meeting at Sha Tin on Sunday [April 28] means the world’s richest money earner forfeits his #1 position after a three-week stint.
However, he is replaced by a compatriot in the formidable Romantic Warrior (#1 from #4, +153pt), who duly becomes the second horse from the region to head our charts after his latest G1 success in the QEII Cup. The Irish-bred six-year-old is the 24th individual horse to top TRC Rankings since since we started compiling racehorse rankings in 2014.
What is more, although he tends to skip under the radar a little in terms of international recognition, Romantic Warrior’s career record bears close inspection. He now has seven ‘official’ G1 wins to his name – by ‘official’, we mean internationally recognised – including the last three editions of Sunday’s HK$28m ($3.58m/£2.85m) highlight plus a pair of Hong Kong Cups and the most recent running of the Cox Plate in Australia.
What is more, this glittering G1 CV does not even take into account his victories as a four-year-old in the richly endowed Hong Kong ‘Classic’ series, when he won both the HK Derby and the HK Classic Mile. (As races restricted to domestic runners, neither has international top-level status, though the TRC scale treats the Derby as if it was a G1 event.)
Romantic Warrior’s claim to top spot looks solid indeed when one considers how many of the current world Top 20 he has beaten in the past. Indeed, Japanese-trained Prognosis (#8 from #11, +63pt), beaten a neck in the QEII Cup, had also been two lengths adrift as runner-up in 2023.
Sunday’s victory was far from plain sailing as world #1 rider James McDonald had to overcome a difficult passage from gate ten in an 11-runner field which left him marooned three wide in the early stages and then five wide on the home turn before a late surge got him home.
“I'm speechless – he's awesome,” said McDonald said. “He was beaten at the 600m, he just finds a way. It's incredible. I dead-set didn't have one thing go my way. I had ten riders dead-set against me and the horse. I just had no favours.
“1000m from home, I was finally having a rest and one took off and at the 600m, he was off the bridle and struggling in the ground a tad and he just picks up. I'm just in disbelief.”
Trainer Danny Shum (#22 from #26, +50pt) is now planning another overseas trip, with the Yasuda Kinen over a mile in Tokyo on June 2 in his sights.
Golden Sixty (#4 from #1, -76pt) came unstuck on rain-softened ground as he could finish only fourth behind Beauty Eternal (#16 from #69, +192pt) as he attempted to complete a record fourth win in the FWD Champions Mile.
Six-time champion jockey Zac Purton (stays at #11, +33pt) showed all his Sha Tin mastery as he overcame a tough draw on the outside to claim the lead on Beauty Eternal, who enjoyed an uncontested lead before scoring readily by a length and a half over John Size-trained stablemate Red Lion.
“There was no speed in the race, which gave us the opportunity to lead,” explained Purton.
“The last thing I said to John before the race was ‘I think the going is a lot better on the fence’, he just got into a lovely rhythm and controlled the race.
“I thought the only chance I had to beat Golden Sixty was to try to put a gap on them and see how we went and today was his day.”
Golden Sixty failed to pick up in his usual fashion and loses his #1 spot; he has spent a total of ten weeks on top of the rankings in three separate stints.
The Chairman’s Sprint, the third G1 on the card, went the way of Hugh Bowman-ridden Invincible Sage (#49 from #672, +419pt), a first top-level success for trainer David Hall since 2008.
T O Royal (#13 from #43, +147pt) became the latest Japanese horse to enter the Top 20 when justifying favouritism in the two-mile Tenno Sho (Spring). The Melbourne Cup is on the cards later this year.
The European G1 season kicked off with a shock result in the Prix Ganay in testing conditions at ParisLongchamp where 19-1 shot Haya Zark (#130 from #529, +216pt) kept on well for pressure to hold Zarir by a neck in a bunch finish.
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• Unlike traditional methods of racehorse rankings, TRC Global Rankings are a measure of an individual’s level of achievement over a rolling three-year period, providing a principled hierarchy of the leading horses, jockeys, trainers, owners and sires using statistical learning techniques. Racehorse rankings can be compared to similar exercises in other sports, like the golf’s world rankings or the ATP rankings in tennis.
They are formulated from the last three years of races we consider Group or Graded class all over the world and update automatically each week according to the quality of a horse’s performances and their recency, taking into account how races work out.