History doesn't always repeat, but in racing it often rhymes.
Forty-odd years ago, Australian racing was blessed with two generational champions ruling the turf at once. There was Kingston Town – "The King" – the near-black gelding who won from 1200m to 3200m, winner of three straight Cox Plates. And there was Manikato – "The Man" – the brutal chestnut sprinter who won five William Reid Stakes in a row, broke hearts from the front and won 20 races that by today's standards would be classed as Group 1s.
They were the yin and yang of their era. On Cox Plate day in 1982, Bill Collins famously called "Kingston Town can't win" rounding the home turn – then watched The King surge to his third Cox Plate. Later on the same card, Manikato won the Moir Stakes to become just the second horse to top $1 million in Australian prize money. They even had a documentary made about them, The King and The Man, that racing fans of a certain age – this one included – wore the wheels off the VCR watching. A golden era of record-breakers, lifting the whole sport at once.
Today, Hong Kong racing finds itself in the same beautiful predicament.
Ka Ying Rising is the modern Manikato. An untouchable speed machine who went eight-from-eight this season, banked five Group 1s including a raid on The Everest, and lowered the Sha Tin 1200m course record to 1:07.10. Timeform rates him a better sprinter than Black Caviar, and he sits on a record domestic rating of 142. He has won 20 straight. Like The Man, he is the relentless engine that grinds rivals into the dust.
Romantic Warrior is the modern Kingston Town, and his versatility is without modern parallel. The iron-willed, globetrotting eight-year-old who refuses to age swept a historic Triple Crown this season from a mile to 2400m. Such is his range that he is a lock for both Champion Middle-Distance Horse and Champion Stayer – the sole nominee in both divisions – and he is in the frame for Champion Miler too. Like The King, who won everything from 1200m to 3200m, he is an irresistible mix of versatility and brilliance.
And here is where the rhyme rings loudest. Just as Kingston Town and Manikato shared a famous Moonee Valley afternoon, these two have made a habit of the same Sha Tin card – both saluting on the same day six times across the past two seasons, the most recent being Champions Day in April. Two kings, one card, over and over.
Like their Australian forebears, they share the throne but not the track – one rules the sprints, the other the middle distances. The parallel is almost uncanny. Even the fans feel it: in the Most Popular Racehorse vote, Ka Ying Rising currently leads on around 57 per cent to Romantic Warrior's 42 – not a divided public so much as a spoiled one.
Then there is the Horse of the Year debate – will it be as close? When the six-member panel sits down before the July 10 presentation at Rosewood, they'll weigh the cold data: ratings, stakes money and race records. Zac Purton calls it "not even a debate" for his sprinter; James McDonald calls Romantic Warrior a "no-brainer." Just like Kingston Town and Manikato – you're not really being asked who is better, but which kind of greatness moves you more: the jaw-dropping brilliance of a flawless sprinter, or the unyielding courage of a globetrotting warrior.
Whichever way you lean, the real winner is Hong Kong racing – living through a dual monarchy we may not see again in this lifetime.
