James McDonald rides Romantic Warrior to third straight Hong Kong Cup in superb day

Kiwi jockey James McDonald wins the HK$40 million Hong Kong Cup on Romantic Warrior at Sha Tin in Hong Kong on Sunday. Credit / HKJC

Michael Guerin in Hong Kong

One of the world’s biggest meetings was turned into an exhibition of New Zealand’s horse racing talent in Hong Kong on Sunday.

New Zealand had a huge hand in three of the four Longines International races at Sha Tin, two of them ridden by our proudest racing export superstar jockey James McDonald.

The 32-year-old rode local hero Romantic Warrior to win his third straight HK$40 million ($8.8m) Hong Kong Cup less than an hour after winning the HK$36m ($7.92m) Hong Kong Mile on Voyage Bubble.

Those two McDonald rides alone pocketed over HK$42m in stakes as the local crowd chanted “Jmac, Jmac”. To give them what they came to see, a hometown victory with Romantic Warrior, meant the world to McDonald, a man born to deliver big moments.

“Forget the rest, he is the best,” said McDonald, who these days lives in Sydney but had already stated he will one day ride fulltime in Hong Kong.

“He is the horse of a lifetime. This was our chance to make history.

“It felt like I was lining up the winning kick for the All Blacks.”

McDonald wasn’t the only Kiwi flying around Sha Tin as New Zealand-bred sprinter Ka Ying Rising won the HK$26m ($5.72m) Longines Hong Kong Sprint.

Ka Ying Rising did what only the most special horses can do, winning his first attempt at a Group 1 even though he didn’t race entirely up to his best. The son of Shamexpress, who stands at Windsor Park Stud, started his career in New Zealand but was sold after a trial and has been a sensation since arriving in Hong Kong.

He went around an incredibly short $1.10 to win the Sprint but it was not the effortless watch punters wanted when he missed the kick slightly and jockey Zac Purton had to use him more than he would have liked early to get outside the leader.

Ka Ying Rising was then given little breathing room by Victor The Winner sitting outside him but still cruised past the leader and held out the late swoopers without looking as dazzling as when he set the Sha Tin track record at his previous start.

“That wasn’t the best of him today,” said Purton.

“A horse lunged at the gates just before the start and that distracted him so he missed the start a bit.

“Then he had that horse outside him annoying him so not much went right but he is a special horse.”

That anybody was disappointed by a lack of shock and awe factor from Ka Ying Rising shows just how highly he is rated.

He looks set to be a freakishly fast four-legged billboard for the New Zealand breeding industry for a few years to come.

The Longines Vase also saw the winner overcome a few things, most notably a home straight check, with Giavellotto still a dominant winner for jockey Oisin Murphy and Italian trainer Marco Botti.

Giovalletto, which is Italian for javelin, was simply too strong for the stayers with the seemingly indestructable Dubai Honour in second.

Last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Without A Fight raced below his best, getting the perfect run in the trail but beaten soon after the gap appeared in the home straight.

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.