Kyprios’s four-week reign at the top of the global rankings ended when Hong Kong superstar Romantic Warrior resumed pole position with an emphatic performance at Sha Tin on Sunday [Nov 17].
This renowned globetrotter returned to action on home ground with a supreme display in the G2 BOCHK Jockey Club Cup, the main domestic trial for next month’s Longines-sponsored Hong Kong Cup, where he will seek to complete a hat-trick.
Sent off a 1-10 favourite in Sunday’s race, Romantic Warrior was eased at the line by James McDonald as her ruthlessly dispatched his rivals to score by 4½ lengths over Ka Ying Generation.
“He's like the prize fighter, isn't he?” said world #2 McDonald. “Heavyweight champion of the world. You never really get nervous on him because he's so good. He's an incredible horse. I love him to bits and he's very good.”
As a result, Romantic Warrior returns to Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s Global rankings in the #1 spot with a current portfolio of 2009pts – easily enough to dethrone Kyprios (1952pt).
Trained by Danny Shum, Romantic Warrior enjoyed a 17-week stint at the top earlier in the year before City Of Troy took over. The six-year-old exited out charts when the 118-day cutoff period was reached – if a horse (or indeed jockey or trainer) is absent for that length of time, they are automatically removed. The logic is simple: how can a horse be described as ‘current #1’ in our rolling rankings when they haven’t run for four months.
Now, though, Romantic Warrior is back, having became the second HK horse to lead TRC rankings when he supplanted compatriot Golden Sixty at the end of April.
He has now won 16 of his 21 career starts. Eight of his victories have come at G1 level – including the last three editions of the QEII Cup, back-to-back Hong Kong Cups, last year’s Cox Plate in Australia and the Yasuda Kinen in Japan in June.
For good measure, he won two legs of the HK Classic series for four-year-olds in 2021, including the HK Derby, which we treat as a G1 for rankings purposes (though it is denied such official recognition as a restricted race).
On the same card at Sha Tin, the Jockey Club Sprint hosted a spectacular display from Ka Ying Rising (#13 from #80, +222pt), who broke Sacred Kingdom’s longstanding track record in the G2 event.
In taking his career record to eight wins and two seconds from ten starts, the four-year-old slammed his rivals with a 3¼-length victory, quickening clear in a matter of strides. He clocked 1m 07.43s despite being eased down over the last 100 metres by Zac Purton, who offered a rare salute to the crowd.
“I knew it was a track record, so I thought I would seal it with a kiss,” said Purton. “It’s getting scary now how good he’s becoming and how easily he’s doing it. It’s a nice top-up run for the big one next month.”
After disappointing on a couple of overseas forays, Voyage Bubble (#35 from #175, +175pt) returned to winning ways in the Jockey Club Mile, but a more notable mover arrived in Japan as Soul Rush (#14 from #100, +228pt) earned his first G1 title in the Mile Championship at Kyoto racecourse. Leading European miler Charyn (#9 from #10, +17pt) wasn’t disgraced in fifth after a wide trip.
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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.