McDonald and Romantic Warrior seize Melbourne Cup Triple Crown

James McDonald and Romantic Warrior turned Sunday night at Sha Tin into a milestone, with the horse winning the Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup to complete Hong Kong racing’s Triple Crown. The victory lifted Romantic Warrior into a bracket only two horses had reached before and set up an immediate setback for McDonald, who is now out for three meetings.

The win came after Romantic Warrior overhauled Numbers at the 50m mark and edged clear, with the race settled as he rattled home in 22.77s. McDonald said, "He’s a Triple Crown winner, he thoroughly deserved it" and added, "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."

Romantic Warrior at Sha Tin

Romantic Warrior settled fourth behind Numbers and Romantic Thor before working into the race, then stretched his Group 1 range from 1600m to 2400m with the win. His record now stands at 24 wins from 31 starts, and his career earnings rose to HK$288 million.

The victory also joined him with River Verdon in 1994 and Voyage Bubble last year as Hong Kong Triple Crown winners. That puts the horse in a tiny group across the city’s racing history, with only three winners now on the list.

McDonald’s three-meeting suspension

McDonald received a three-meeting suspension for taking the line of third-placed Deep Monster in the home straight, and that penalty will keep him out of the Queensland Oaks meeting at Eagle Farm on June 6. The suspension landed after he had already ridden a Group 1 winner with Birdman in the Doomben Cup 27 hours earlier in Brisbane.

Danny Shum said, "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". Shum added, "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]."

Hong Kong title race pressure

Shum’s double lifted his seasonal total to 56 wins and kept him ahead of Caspar Fownes on 54, Mark Newnham on 52, Francis Lui on 50, David Hayes on 49 and John Size on 46 in the trainers’ title race. Zac Purton also rode a treble and moved to his 1998th Hong Kong win, a tally that left him one strong step from 2,000.

For McDonald, the Triple Crown will read as the headline achievement, but the suspension is the immediate cost. For Shum, the horse’s next move now centers on rest and whether Conghua becomes the landing point after a win that pushed Romantic Warrior into rare company.