Australia: Romantic Warrior gets nose down to win Cox Plate

Never leading until the very last stride of the race, post-time favorite Romantic Warrior made a well-timed, winning charge in the short homestretch at Moonee Valley on Saturday to win by a nose in the Group 1, US$3.15 million Cox Plate, the second of the three major races in the Melbourne Spring Carnival.

Jockey James McDonald, who won Australia’s top weight-for-age race for the second consecutive year, rode 5-year-old gelding Romantic Warrior (2-1) three-wide into a battle at the top of the 167-yard stretch with two-wide leader Alligator Blood (5-1) and ground-saving closer Mr Brightside (7-1).

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Mr Brightside, a 6-year-old gelding whose runner-up finish two weeks ago in Sydney kept him from a third straight Group 1 win in the last two months, found the lead under Craig Williams with 70 yards to go. He looked like a winner until Romantic Warrior collared him at the finish of the turf race that covered 2,040 meters, 31 yards longer than 1 1/4 miles.

The win photo was posted seconds later and showed Romantic Warrior winning by the length of a nostril. Alligator Blood, a 7-year-old gelding who won two previous Group 1 races in the past five weeks, finished a short neck back in third with jockey Tim Clark. Romantic Warrior was the seventh favorite in the last nine years to win the race.

Romantic Warrior’s winning time in the field of 12 was 2:03.16 without a run-up over a left-handed course rated good. It was the fastest running of the Cox Plate since 2017, when Winx won her third of four in a row.

Owned by Peter Lau Pak Fai and trained by Danny Shum, Romantic Warrior was sired in Ireland by Acclamation. He began his career with 14 races at his home base in Hong Kong. He won the 2022 and 2023 QEII Cup (G1) on either side of a triumph in 2022 Hong Kong Cup (G1). His first race away from home resulted in a fourth-place finish three weeks ago in the Turnbull Stakes (G1) at Flemington.

McDonald, who won last year with Anamoe, was the first jockey to repeat in the Cox Plate since Hugh Bowman’s run with Winx from 2015 to 2018.

Last week Without A Fight won the first major race of the Spring Carnival, the 1 1/2-mile Caulfield Cup (G1). Ireland-based, 5-year-old gelding Vauban has been the 3-1 futures favorite to win Nov. 7 in the US$5 million Melbourne Cup (G1), the signature, two-mile race at Flemington.