Romantic Warrior will not be for catching in Sunday’s Group One Champions & Chater Cup (2,400m) at Sha Tin according to the race’s most successful trainer Tony Cruz, but he is still aiming for a slice of prize money with his stayer Gentlemen Legacy.
Cruz has made the final Group One of the Hong Kong season his own since transitioning to the training ranks, winning the race on seven occasions, including four in a row from 2013 to 2016 and a further three times from 2018 to 2020.
Also winning the race as a jockey aboard Makarpura Star in 1995 for trainer John Moore, he captured the race as a trainer for the first time when California Memory screamed home under Matthew Chadwick in 2013.
That victory kicked off an avalanche of success in the race, with Blazing Speed (2014, 2016) and Helene Super Star (2015) continuing his run over the next few years.
Werther stopped his sequence in 2017 when he defeated Blazing Speed, but Cruz was soon back on the winning wagon when the truly one-of-a-kind Pakistan Star – the quirky yet endlessly talented enigma – won his second Group One in a canter, leading home a trifecta in the race for Cruz.
