How do you beat Romantic Warrior? It is the question hanging over Sunday's Group 1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup as the eight-year-old chases Triple Crown history at Sha Tin. His rivals' trainers have had weeks to ponder it.
Francis Lui Kin-wai, who saddles last season's Derby winner Cap Ferrat and consistent stayer Winning Wing, needed just one word.
"Cannot," Lui told The Standard.
Frankie Lor Fu-chuen laughed when asked how Numbers could turn the tables.
"How can I beat Romantic Warrior? No one can believe that," Lor said.
Tony Cruz knows better than most what it takes to win this race. From 2013 to 2020, he trained seven Champions & Chater Cup winners, scoring with California Memory, Blazing Speed twice, Helene Super Star, Pakistan Star and Exultant twice.
"Wow, my goodness, from day one you could see he was a class horse," Cruz said.
Romantic Warrior's debut came at Happy Valley on October 20, 2021, when he jumped from barrier 12, raced three wide without cover throughout under Joao Moreira and still powered away to win by one and a half lengths.
"A good racehorse can wait for his jockey and when the jockey asks him to go, he'll go," Cruz said. "But Romantic Warrior is just a class above the rest. He's got pure ability. He's a true athlete. Top of the class."
This year, Cruz saddles Gentlemen Legacy against Romantic Warrior, but even the race's most successful modern trainer was not reaching for bold claims.
"If I can run a place behind him, I'll be happy," Cruz said.
They keep coming back to the same qualities that make Romantic Warrior so hard to beat. He is uncomplicated, has the speed to find the right position, relaxes when he gets there and still quickens when asked.
His trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing will tell you Romantic Warrior is a better horse now at the age of eight. The trainers trying to beat him seem to agree.
Lor has been around Hong Kong racing long enough to have seen many of the greats and even rode against River Verdon in the 1990s when he was still a jockey. But he ranks Romantic Warrior as something special.
"You see, he is now an eight-year-old but looks like a young man," Lor said. "He is just in a different class. When he was younger, he was still keen in his races, but getting older, he is very relaxed now."
Romantic Warrior faces eight rivals over 2,400 meters in the final leg of Hong Kong's Triple Crown. He has already won the first two legs, the Stewards' Cup (1,600m) and Hong Kong Gold Cup (2,000m), leaving him one victory from joining River Verdon and Voyage Bubble as only the third horse to complete the series.
For three decades, River Verdon had Hong Kong's Triple Crown to himself after sweeping the series in 1993-94. Voyage Bubble joined him last season. Romantic Warrior can now add his name to the shortest of lists.
The last time Romantic Warrior was beaten on home soil came in this race in 2023, when he was a five-year-old in his second campaign. Zac Purton attempted to lead throughout in a true staying test before Russian Emperor, the previous year's winner and Hong Kong's Champion Stayer at the time, swept home from off the pace to collar him late by a neck.
Lor saddles this season's Derby runner-up Numbers, who finished seventh, beaten five and a half lengths by Romantic Warrior, in the FWD QEII Cup last time.
