Romantic Warrior is said to be at ‘80-90% of his best condition’ and he makes his Meydan debut in the G1 Jebel Hatta on Friday’s card [Jan 24] at Meydan with James McDonald in the saddle
Think of of the best racehorses of the past two decades and who trained them. Most of the names are as familiar as the famous races they won: Bobby Frankel, Sir Michael Stoute, John Gosden, Steve Asmussen, Sir Henry Cecil, Chris Waller, John Sadler, Jim Bolger, John Oxx, Bob Baffert, Charlie Appleby and Aidan O’Brien.
It’s uncanny. Every great trainer needs a great horse – and that list is a who’s who of greats – it makes no difference what era. For Frankel it was Ghostzapper, for Asmussen read Curlin, for Waller read Winx, for Oxx it was Sea The Stars, for Sadler try Flightline, and for Cecil insert Frankel. That’s symmetry for you.
On the other side of the coin, there are examples of champions, who needed a trainer of championship quality to put them on the path to greatness. Cecil’s signature career signoff was the mastering of Frankel, the most explosive and supremely brilliant talent of 2011-12; some say, the greatest of modern times.
Many argue that without Sir Henry’s touch, the colt would never have retired unbeaten and would not have achieved what he did.
Fast forward to 2025 and the current #1 racehorse in the world is Romantic Warrior, who has led Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s Global Rankings for 27 weeks. The seven-year-old gelding by Acclamation is trained by 64-year-old Shum Chap-shing, a homegrown Hong Kong product of a racing jurisdiction exceeding all expectations in terms of international achievement.
It has long been the custom for Hong Kong Chinese pupils to be given an English first name when sent to school. Hence, the trainer listed for Romantic Warrior on official Hong Kong Jockey Club literature is Danny C S Shum, and such is his current success rate he leads his 21 rivals in the local trainers’ championship.
The title is decided numerically (wins) rather than on prize-money though his horses have already amassed HK$63.2m (approx £6.3m).
Danny Shum may not be as readily known as the above mentioned trainers but he has worked in racing his entire life, having first been licensed by the HKJC 48 years ago, when he was taken on as an apprentice jockey. At the time, professional racing in Hong Kong was entering only its seventh season.
Thrown in at the deep end
Unlike apprentices today, there were no avenues available for these inexperienced riders to compete abroad on country tracks in Australia and New Zealand. They were thrown in at the deep end and Shum found himself coming up against names such as Lester Piggott, Joe Mercer and Pat Eddery from England and Ireland, and five-times Kentucky Derby winner Bill Hartack from the States.
Not surprisingly perhaps, Shum registered only 24 winners in the period 1977-83. He was apprenticed to middle-of-the-list trainer Cheung Hok-man, who enjoyed the support of several prominent owners, including Li Fook-wo, the chairman of the Bank Of East Asia and also vice-chairman of the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club. (It was ‘Royal’ up to 1996, a year before the hand back of the territory to China).
But the turning point for Shum came when he joined trainer Ivan Allan as his assistant. Allan was a legend in Singapore racing before he moved base to Hong Kong. He had contacts worldwide and was best-known in Britain as the owner of Commanche Run, winner of the 1984 St Leger at Doncaster with Piggott in the saddle.
Ivan Allan also recruited Indigenous from Irish trainer Kevin Prendergast and trained him to finish second in a Japan Cup as well as a string of big wins in Hong Kong.
Royal Ascot success
Danny Shum was a keen observer and a good listener. He learned a great deal from Allan, which he was able to put to good use when he took the sprinter Little Bridge from Hong Kong to Royal Ascot to win the 2012 King’s Stand Stakes.
Little Bridge was admirable but Romantic Warrior is the great horse that Shum has been seeking. The winner of 17 of his 22 races, he will be looking to make it eight wins in succession when he lines up in the Jebel Hatta, over nine furlongs at Meydan in Dubai on Friday [Jan 24].
Included among his recent wins are the Cox Plate in Melbourne, and the Yasuda Kinen in Tokyo – enough, with his plethora of domestic triumphs, among them a historic hat-trick in the Hong Kong Cup – to make him the world’s leading prize-money earner of all time. However, this is his first venture to the Middle East and his first experience of Dubai’s spectacular racetrack.
It is also a first for his world-renowned rider fellow Dubai debutant James McDonald, who had his first feel of the track when he took Romantic Warrior for a training spin on the turf on Tuesday. McDonald’s prowess globally is assurance there will not have much to worry about in the jockey department, though Shum says he views this as a prep for the Saudi Cup in Riyadh on Feb 22 and either the Dubai World Cup or the Dubai Turf on April 5.
“I believe he’s at 80-90% of his best condition,” says the trainer. “Actually, I don’t really like to measure it this way. If you really want me to give a specific assessment, I would say he’s a little over 80% but not quite 90%.
‘He doesn’t need to be in top form’
“In fact, he doesn't need to be in top form right now, because our main goals are the following two races. For his next race on Friday, we don't need to push him too hard. This race is mainly to prepare him for the next two bigger targets.”
That said, coming from the inside gate (one) – and with chief danger, the hometown Godolphin star Measured Time, starting from six in the eight-runner field – expectations are pretty high that the Hong Kong champion will not be thwarted on his Dubai debut.
McDonald – J-Mac to his followers – has faith in his mount and also in Shum as a trainer, whom he respects greatly. “Danny’s easy to get on with, he’s straightforward,” he says. “He also knows his horses inside out, which makes the job so much easier. He has them fit and ready to go. He doesn’t overcomplicate things.
“Leading up to the Cox Plate [in 2023], Danny wasn’t able to be there early,” adds the rider. “The horse had missed a trial (in Hong Kong) and he arrived very underdone. Both Danny and Peter Lau were disappointed when he finished fourth in the Turnbull Stakes at Flemington but it was simply a case of the horse being too big in condition.”
Clearly, fitness was the issue. Shum listened to McDonald’s advice and was able to arrange three pieces of work on the course proper at Moonee Valley leading into the big race.
“If it had been two weeks to the Cox Plate we would have been buggered,” reports McDonald. “Lucky it was three weeks and that was in our favour. It was nice to get him there.”
This has been a big week for Hong Kong racing, kickstarted by Ka Ying Rising giving a brilliant display of sprinting to break his own track record for 1,200 metres (6f) at Sha Tin on Sunday.
Romantic Warrior, McDonald and Shum will be looking to carry on the good work in Dubai on Friday.
• Visit the Hong Kong Jockey Club website and the Dubai Racing Club website
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