After joint-scan anomaly, Romantic Warrior ceremony is off

The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s veterinary regulation, welfare and biosecurity policy department announced that ceremony to welcome 10-time Group 1 winner Romantic Warrior back to Hong Kong on Saturday at Sha Tin will not happen after an anomaly was found in a joint scan.

Romantic Warrior is spelling following his return from his races in Dubai and Saudi Arabia. The 7-year-old gelding was returned to Hong Kong presenting extremely well and has not exhibited any signs of lameness or any other clinical issues.

Nevertheless, consistent with the club's procedures for the care of our racehorses, a detailed physical examination has been carried out, including imaging using our veterinary hospital’s state-of-the-art equipment. This proactive screening has enabled a very early detection of some potential changes in one of the horse’s joints. As a consequence of this systematic approach to ensuring horse welfare a management plan has been developed that will ensure that Romantic Warrior has an extremely good prognosis of such changes being fully addressed.

While Romantic Warrior would not face any risk from the planned ceremony to welcome his return to Hong Kong, the club nevertheless believes that the ceremony is not a priority, and so it will not be held Saturday.

Owned by Peter Lau Pak Fai, Romantic Warrior most recently finished second in the Dubai Turf (G1) last month at Meydan. His $27,298,595, according to Equibase, are a world record for earnings by a racehorse.