Zac Purton believes Voyage Bubble will need to match his gargantuan effort in landing the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) in December if he is to succeed in defending his G1 Stewards\u2019 Cup (1600m) title when he goes up against Romantic Warrior on Sunday (25 January).<\/p>
The son of Deep Field was forced to dig deep to overcome a determined Soul Rush in December\u2019s renewal of the HK$36 million mile test; when the Japanese raider inched past Ricky Yiu\u2019s charge in the home straight, Voyage Bubble found extra to retain his Mile crown. It was a rousing effort, and one that the seven-year-old will need to replicate if he is to stand a chance against Danny Shum\u2019s global superstar.<\/p>
\u201cI think everyone thought he was beaten at the 100m,\u201d Purton recalled. \u201cSoul Rush had a tough run. He was wide, he worked, and he just peaked on his run, allowing our horse to build a little bit of confidence, and Voyage Bubble finished it off strongly. It was a good win.\u201d<\/p>
The Triple Crown series of races comprises Sunday\u2019s HK$13 million Stewards\u2019 Cup, the HK$13 million G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) on 1 March and the HK$13 million G1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2400m) on 24 May. Voyage Bubble became only the second horse after the legendary River Verdon (1993\/94) to complete the Triple Crown during the 2024\/25 season.<\/p>
With connections of both horses opting to focus on a domestic campaign this term, the battle for the Triple Crown is set to be one of the most enthralling stories of the Hong Kong season.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”13261″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Romantic Warrior is the highest-earning racehorse in history, with HK$240.1 million in prize money banked across five seasons, in which he has claimed 11 Group 1 victories. Shum\u2019s phenomenon hasn\u2019t lost a Group 1 on home soil since going down by a neck to Russian Emperor in the 2023 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup.<\/p>
A successful defence of his Triple Crown is a tall order for Yiu\u2019s stable star. One factor thought to be in Voyage Bubble\u2019s favour ahead of Sunday\u2019s clash, however, is his well-earned reputation as one of the world\u2019s leading mile specialists, a distance Romantic Warrior hasn\u2019t campaigned at since winning the 2024 G1 Yasuda Kinen (1600m). But Purton was reluctant to pin too much hope on Romantic Warrior not handling the mile on Sunday.<\/p>
\u201cGenerally, I would agree (Voyage Bubble has an advantage as a mile specialist),\u201d Purton said. \u201cBut Romantic Warrior\u2019s got so much natural speed that he could put himself anywhere. If he was going to a 1200-metre race, he\u2019d still lay up and be competitive, and maybe even win it. He\u2019s an amazing horse. He\u2019s clearly a better horse than us. So we need to find a way to beat him.\u201d<\/p>
James McDonald, who will pair up with the Acclamation gelding for the 17th time on Sunday, is \u201cbuzzing\u201d to be reuniting with the eight-year-old, but isn\u2019t taking anything for granted as he seeks a 14th win for the partnership.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to the big clash,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty competitive race with Galaxy Patch and My Wish, they\u2019re all very good horses. Red Lion is a very good horse as well. It\u2019s going to be no pushover. But you can\u2019t have a better partner than Romantic (Warrior) to go to war with.\u201d<\/p>
As for the suggestion that the drop back to a mile could affect Romantic Warrior\u2019s chance of claiming a first Stewards\u2019 Cup win, McDonald was bullish in his rebuttal.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s back in trip a little bit, but he\u2019s got so much pace, it\u2019s not funny. He\u2019s such a star racehorse and he\u2019ll give his best each and every time,\u201d he added.<\/p>
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what distance, it doesn\u2019t matter what surface, Romantic\u2019s a champion, and he\u2019ll get the job done.\u201d<\/p>
Sunday\u2019s (25 January) 11-race Sha Tin meeting starts with the Class 4 Peniaphobia Handicap (1000m) at 12.30pm.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”13260″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Zac Purton believes Voyage Bubble will need to match his gargantuan effort in landing the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) in December if he is to succeed in defending his G1 Stewards\u2019 Cup (1600m) title when he goes up against Romantic Warrior on Sunday (25 January).The son of Deep Field… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":13262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"2normal","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13258"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13258"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13275,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13258\/revisions\/13275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}