“He’s a Triple Crown winner, he thoroughly deserved it,” McDonald, who had ridden a Group 1 winner with Birdman in the Doomben Cup just 27 hours earlier in Brisbane, said.
“I read an article, the boss [Hong Kong Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht Bresges] said he was already an immortal and I totally agree with him.
“He didn’t need to win this to be that.
“I think this is the cherry on top – he should be Horse of the Year this year and I think he stamped that by winning the Triple Crown.”
“Before the race we already set up the plan – put him to sleep, let him relax, and try to hit the front. He hit the line in the last 400m, so James has done a great job, he’s [a] top-class jockey,” trainer Danny Shum said.
Settling fourth behind Numbers and Romantic Thor, Romantic Warrior worked into the race under the unflappable McDonald before the reigning world’s best jockey stoked up the eight-year-old deep into the straight and overhauled Numbers at the 50m mark before edging clear.
Numbers fought tigerishly to hold off Deep Monster as Romantic Warrior rattled home in 22.77s, extending his winning range at Group 1 level from 1600m to 2400m.
Shum is considering sending the Hong Kong International Sale graduate to Conghua, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s training facility in mainland China, for the first time before identifying next season’s targets with the winner of 24 races from 31 starts.
“The plan is to give him a break. I will think about whether to send him to Conghua, same as Ka Ying Rising – Ka Ying Rising is very happy [there].
“So I might send him to Conghua, give him a little break and then see how he goes,” Shum said.
“We’re happy because we have a very good team and stable. Peter [Lau] always makes the right decisions and James McDonald is a very good jockey.”
Zac Purton edged closer to the 2,000-win milestone in Hong Kong with a treble.
“It was all right. I was hoping to ride one or two today, so three was better than expected,” Purton said after notching his 1998th Hong Kong win.
Shum’s double boosted his seasonal tally to 56 wins, leading Caspar Fownes (54), Mark Newnham (52), Francis Lui (50), David Hayes (49) and John Size (46) in the race for the trainers’ title.
New Zealand-based stallion Wrote continued his great run in Hong Kong by siring the first two winners on the programme.
– extra reporting Hong Kong Jockey Club
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.