ROMANTIC Warrior’s climb to stardom has met with just a single setback, and at the weekend he won for the ninth time in 10 starts, boosting his career earnings to a staggering £5.75 million.

Bred in Ireland by the Egan family’s Corduff Stud and Tim Rooney, Romantic Warrior (Acclamation) beat a classy field of international runners to land the Group 1 Longines Hong Kong Cup, and stamp himself as one of the best racehorses ever to set foot on the turf in the country.

No horse had managed to win the Hong Kong Derby and follow up with success in the Hong Kong Cup for eight years, and the last to do so was another Irish-bred, Designs On Rome. Sunday’s win came in the richest race run in Hong Kong, and Romantic Warrior clocked a sub-two-minute winning time as he slammed the field by an incredible four and a half lengths and more.

After the race, the winning jockey, James McDonald, simply said: “That was really as good as it looked. He was perfect from start to finish today, and he’s right up there with any of the other really good ones I’ve ridden.”

The Hong Kong Jockey Club boss Winfried Englebrecht-Bresges is an aficionado of international racing, and speaking at the post-race press conference added: “Romantic Warrior has produced the best 10-furlong performance I have seen for a long time against world-class competition.” High praise indeed.

Kinane purchase

Romantic Warrior was picked from the Corduff Stud draft by Michael Kinane on behalf of the Hong Kong Jockey Club in his first season as their selector, realising 300,000gns in Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. On the day he had to see off the persistent Jake Warren. Malcolm Bastard then had the gelding for 10 months before he headed to Manton after the HKJC changed operations.

Romantic Warrior’s owner Peter Lau purchased him at the HKJC International Sale for the equivalent of €550,000. A feature of public sales in Hong Kong is that in the catalogue you will find details of the pre-sale costs for all the lots, and €490,000 had been spent on Romantic Warrior until then.

Last Sunday’s win was adding to Romantic Warrior’s victories in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup, the Group 2 Jockey Club Cup, the Listed Hong Kong Derby and the Listed Hong Kong Classic Mile, and now connections are eyeing up an unusual target, as Royal Ascot winning trainer Danny Shum revealed.

Shum said: “His owner Peter Lau said: “Danny, if we win this race, we should target the Hong Kong Triple Crown.” That feat, which involves winning the Group 1 Stewards’ Cup (over a mile), the Group 1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (10 furlongs) and the Group 1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (12 furlongs), has only been achieved once, by the Irish-bred River Verdon in 1994.

Ascendancy

Romantic Warrior is a son of Folk Melody (Street Cry), whose own star is in the ascendancy. The Egan father and son team of James and David with Rooney bought her for €82,000 through Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock at Goffs, and immediately got their money back when the foal she was carrying, Melodic Charm (Exceed And Excel), sold for 85,000gns as a yearling. That filly won twice, and recently she sold to China Horse Club, in foal to Dark Angel (Acclamation), for 270,000gns.

Folk Melody won a 16-runner maiden at Newmarket over seven furlongs at two for Godolphin, but failed to add to that in four starts after transferring from Saeed bin Suroor to Charlie Appleby. Her first foal is Pennywhistle (Iffraaj), a very consistent type for John Gosden, finishing in the first three on eight of her 11 starts, though she managed just once to get her head in front. Melodic Charm is her second foal, and Romantic Warrior her third.

Folk Melody has an unraced Showcasing (Oasis Dream) two-year-old, Operation Gimcrack, who sold for 160,000gns last year to Bryan Smart. She has another Showcasing colt foal, and is in foal to New Bay (Shamardal).

Resurgence

The emergence of Romantic Warrior is part of a resurgence in this female line. Folk Melody is one of four winners from six runners and 10 foals of racing age out of the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes winner Folk Opera (Singspiel).

That Godolphin-owned mare also won the 2008 Group 2 Prix Jean Romanet, the last staging before it was upgraded to Group 1 status.

After her retirement to the paddocks, Folk Opera visited Street Cry (Machiavellian) for her first two seasons at stud, and Folk Melody was born the year after her own-sister Opera Lily. The latter was trained in the USA by Kiaran McLaughlin, never ran, sold in the summer of 2013 for $20,000 and was later covered that year by Exchange Rate (Danzig).

The resulting colt, born in Argentina, was named Mr Bailetti, and his victories in Peru included the Group 1 Gran Premio Nacional Augusto B Leguia at three. Opera Lily has since produced a second stakes winner, this time in Argentina, in the form of Opus Alpha (Cima De Triomphe).

There is one other Group 1 winner that crops up in the first four generations of Romantic Warrior’s pedigree, and that is the Beat Hollow (Sadler’s Wells) filly Proportional.

She was the best of her sex and generation at two in France after her victory in the Prix Marcel Boussac, and she is a stakes-producer at stud. Her dam, the group-placed Minority (Generous) is a half-sister to Skiphall (Halling), the dam of Folk Opera.

Most popular

One of the most popular sires with breeders in Ireland and abroad, Acclamation (Royal Applause) will shortly turn 24. His fee for next year has already been set by Rathbarry Stud at €27,500.

For the last two seasons he has continued to cover books of about 100 mares, and the list of breeders who sent mares to him in 2022 reads like a who’s who of the bloodstock world.

Little wonder that Acclamation continues to be popular. His sons include Group 1 winners Dark Angel, Equiano, Expert Eye and Aclaim, all successful stallions, as well as Mehmas, Harbour Watch and Lilborne Lad.

His daughters include the 6,000,000gns mare Marsha, a record that still stands, and he is the maternal grandsire of Group 1 winners Broome and Eqtidaar.