Hong Kong superstar Romantic Warrior confirmed his status as the world’s #1 racehorse with another brilliant G1 victory in track record time at last week’s Dubai Carnival meeting at Meydan where he coasted home to claim the Jebel Hatta.
However, this race was seriously marred by the death of the 2024 winner Measured Time, who broke down in the straight after being overwhelmed by the eventual winner.
Already the record prize-money earner of all time, this incredible seven-year-old was recording his tenth G1 success as he scored by 4½ lengths from Poker Face to claim the $500,000 contest. Following his victories in the Cox Plate (Australia) and Yasuda Kinen (Japan) – plus a slew of domestic victories in Hong Kong – Romantic Warrior has now won G1 races in four different countries.
Frankly, it seems hard that any other horse could have claims to being the world’s leading racehorse, and he duly spends his 28th week at the top of Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s Global Rankings with a 75pt boost.
The Jebel Hatta was a dramatic race altogether. With trainer Danny Shum suggesting Romantic Warrior was only 80-90% fit with the Saudi Cup in mind, Godolphin’s Measured Time set a blistering gallop and was ten lengths clear at one stage.
An ultra-confident James McDonald did not send Romantic Warrior in pursuit until after they turned for home, soon reducing the margin and taking over about 100 metres from home. Soon after, Measured Time suffered a fatal injury here, breaking down just before the line.
Carrying the colours of owner Peter Lau, Romantic Warrior is a gelded son of former leading Irish-based sire Acclamation.
He has now won 18 of his 23 career starts. Ten of his victories have come at G1 level – as well as his Hong Kong Cup hat-trick, he has won the last three editions of the QEII Cup, last year’s Cox Plate and the Yasuda Kinen in Japan in June. 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).
“He’s just a superstar,” said McDonald, who is closing in on Ryan Moore at the head of TRC jockeys’ rankings.
“He’s just a very good racehorse and he adapts to any circumstances during a race, to any pace and has a good turn of foot. He’s a very strong-minded horse, He could be a sprinter, that’s how fast he is. I was a bit worried as he was a little bit fresh in the parade ring but he found his cool going down to the start.
“As soon as I turned for home, I could see the leader in the race so far in front but he [Romantic Warrior] was picking up so beautifully and he did the rest. I was just delighted with him. He jumps fast, he travels well and I never felt in doubt at all.”
Next up comes the world’s richest race, the Saudi Cup on Feb 22 in Riyadh. “I don’t know if he’ll go on the dirt,” admitted McDonald. “It’s a completely different kettle of fish. He has a tremendous will to win, though, so that will get him far.”
Laurel River stunned by King Gold
Also heading for the Saudi Cup is last year’s Dubai World Cup winner Laurel River, who re-enters the TRC Global Rankings at #18 after a surprise defeat to 66-1 longshot King Gold (#348 from #558, +74pt) in G3 company on the same card.
The French veteran charged home late to cut down front-running Laurel River, who had established a six-length lead before fitness presumably told on his return to action after nine months away. A short-head was the margin.
“He’s a very fast horse and he was very brave there, maybe a little too enthusiastic,” said Juddmonte chief executive Douglas Erskine-Crum.“We’ll go to the Saudi Cup – see you in Riyadh!”
Walk Of Stars in line for Saudi Cup
If 12-time UAE champion jockey Tadhg O’Shea (#73 from #105, +61pt) was downbeat after Laurel River’s defeat, he was in fine form elsewhere on a blockbuster card with a double courtesy of Walk Of Stars and Tuz for UAE champion trainer Bhupat Seemar (#56 from #103, +74pt).
Walk Of Stars enters the charts at #128 after galloping away with the Al Maktoum Challenge. Horses can be transformed in Dubai and this certainly looks the case here as the six-year-old – a Godolphin discard after being gelded at four – forced the pace for his first Group-race success of any kind.
Admittedly, the son of Dubawi was once highly regarded, having run in Desert Crown’s Derby at Epsom, and he had won his previous outing in lesser grade over course and distance by the small matter of 11 lengths. The Saudi Cup beckons for him as well.
On the same card, Golden Shaheen winner Tuz (#30 from #52, +96pt), completed a Meydan four-timer in the G3 Al Shindagha Sprint.
“He’s a machine around here,” said O’Shea. “He’s playing games with the opposition at the moment. He’s a jockey’s dream, a push button, and just a phenomenal racehorse. He had his ears pricked and if something had come to him, he’d have pulled out more.”
White Abarrio peerless in Pegasus
The Pegasus World Cup card at Guflstream Park on Saturday [Jan 25] featured an authoritative performance from White Abarrio (#12 from #182, +388pt).
The five-year-old landed his first graded stakes of any sort since the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic in fine style, stretching out to win by a stakes-record 6¼ lengths under Irad Ortiz, who was winning the race for the third time in nine runnings of the $3m highlight.
“We had a lot of faith in him today,” Ortiz said. “The whole way around he felt like a winner.”
Guess what? The Saudi Cup is possible, though he was well beaten in Riyadh in 2024.
White Abarrio was a third winner on the card for trainer Saffie Joseph (#28 from #38, +92pt), who is chasing his fourth Championship Meet title at Gulfstream.
“I thought the Breeders’ Cup Classic was the best race of his life, but this was very close behind,” said Joseph (right), also on the mark in G2 company with Be Your Best and Mystic Lake.
“Everything just aligned,” added the trainer, who for good measure also saddled Pegasus third Skippylongstocking. “You come up with a plan and more often than not it doesn’t work, but today it did.”
In Japan, last year’s Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) winner Danon Decile (#41 from #155, +155pt) returned to winning ways in the G2 American Jockey Club Cup at Nakayama, arriving late on the scene for a cosy victory.
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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.