James McDonald’s victory salute aboard the Danny Shum trained Romantic Warrior in the Group 1, HK$34 million LONGINES Hong Kong Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday placed an exclamation mark on McDonald’s stellar year in the saddle.
The 2022 LONGINES World’s Best Jockey and Romantic Warrior faced a quality field of horses from around the world, but he fully justified his short-priced favourite status with a very popular win.
McDonald was only in the saddle because of Romantic Warrior’s regular rider Karis Teetan’s recent stint on the sidelines with a thyroid condition. Teetan has only recently returned to riding.
Romantic Warrior surged to the lead on straightening and in keeping with his “warrior” name slayed the field by a full 4.5 length margin.
McDonald shared his pleasure at the win with the jubilant crowd at 45 000 plus crowd at Sha Tin. Standing up in the irons as they approached the winning post McDonald stood up in the irons and given an expansive salute to the delight of the crowd.
Romantic Warrior has now won nine of his ten starts and has amassed an impressive HK$63.1 million in prize money for his owners.
His potential had already been recognised last season when he was awarded the HKJC Most Improved Horse in the 2021/22 season.
After the race McDonald was understandably full of praise for the Danny Shum trained gelding.
“That was a superstar performance wasn’t it, he put himself in a great spot,” said McDonald. “Fast from the gates, he switched off and Danny Shum has had him in tip-top order the whole time. He is very, very good. He has just got a great attribute of switching off and having a great turn of foot.”
McDonald expressed his desire to win a Hong Kong Cup at the gala dinner held on Friday evening to honour his achievements as the World’s Best Jockey in 2021/22. His dreams were realised with an amazing display not seen in many years on the Sha Tin racetrack.
After the race an emotional McDonald embraced Danny Shum on the track in some emotional scenes.
Trainer Danny Shum was pleased to have secured McDonald for the four-year-old gelding when he won the BOCHK (Group 2) on November 20.
After that win Shum elected to stay with McDonald and said after this race, “I got a good jockey on board. We talked yesterday evening and we planned it exactly like this.”
The LONGINES Hong Kong Cup was the final event on a massive day of racing that saw a record prize money of HK$110 million on offer across the four feature events.
