Murphy Hails Romantic Warrior Ahead of Strong QEII Cup Challenge
Murphy says Royal Champion must raise his game to catch Romantic Warrior, who is chasing a record fourth QEII Cup and a place among Hong Kong’s all-time greats.
Oisin Murphy will walk into Sha Tin on Sunday with a Group 1 winner under his arm, but the horse that sets the terms of the conversation is still Romantic Warrior. Murphy, reunited with Royal Champion for the HK$30 million FWD QEII Cup over 2000 metres, said it plainly: "Romantic Warrior has been absolutely extraordinary."
That is the standard Royal Champion now has to chase. The Karl Burke-trained eight-year-old earned his breakthrough in the G1 Neom Turf Cup over 2100 metres in Saudi Arabia in February, a result that confirmed he belongs in races of this level. The QEII Cup will ask for more. Murphy has already made clear that Royal Champion will need to improve again if he is to topple a horse whose reputation now hangs over every elite field in Hong Kong.
Romantic Warrior arrives at FWD Champions Day with the kind of record that turns one race into a test of status. The Danny Shum-trained eight-year-old gelding won the QEII Cup in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and is now bidding for a record-extending fourth victory in the race. He is also being aimed at his 14th Group 1 start in this context, and another win would draw him level with his four Hong Kong Cup triumphs. For a horse already described as the world’s highest-earning racehorse, Sunday is about more than another trophy. It is about whether the field can force him to reveal any limits at all.
His latest public appearance offered few reasons to doubt him. In a Sha Tin trial on 14 April, under Hugh Bowman, Romantic Warrior stepped alertly from the barriers, travelled under restraint and crossed the line an untested second, one length behind the Group 1-winning Red Lion in 1m 10.70s. The read from the trial was simple enough: relaxed, well-schooled and ready for another major assignment.
The opposition is not thin. Japan’s Masquerade Ball is among the international challengers in what is being shaped as one of the strongest QEII Cup fields Romantic Warrior has faced. That is what gives this race its edge. Royal Champion brings the momentum of a Saudi Arabia breakthrough, but the bigger question is whether any rival can turn Romantic Warrior from benchmark into beaten horse. Until someone does, the race at Sha Tin will keep being measured against him.
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