Peter Lau’s Incredible Ride: Romantic Warrior’s Scan, Legacy, And Retirement Decisions

PETER LAU knows the most incredible journey doesn’t have long left to run. Romantic Warrior has taken the veteran owner to heights he could not even have dreamed about as a young boy watching Happy Valley races on TV with his grandfather and his civil servant father Lau King-ming, in the Causeway Bay apartment he grew up in. But the champion is rising nine years old and age will bring retirement soon. 

Before that happens, Lau’s hope is for an incredible fifth win for the Danny Shum-trained star in the G1 Hong Kong Cup in December, and then, perhaps, one final dance on the dirt, in the G1 Saudi Cup, the race that got away.

That’s the dream. But a Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) press release issued late in the day, at 7:20pm Tuesday, served as a sharp reminder that a racehorse’s career is always one false step, one sports injury away from being over. HKJC’s screening, using unspecified imaging equipment, “revealed a change in one of the horse’s joints that requires further detailed assessment by the veterinary team.”   

The completion of that assessment will have to wait a short while, until the return to Hong Kong of the man who expertly operated on Romantic Warrior in May 2025 – inserting a screw in his near-fore fetlock – a procedure which enabled the horse to continue through an unbeaten Triple Crown-winning campaign last season.  

“We shall wait for Dr. Lawrence Chan to come back from his holiday next week to do the detailed assessment before giving a clear announcement,” Lau told Idol Horse.  

Retirement was already on the not-too-far horizon for the eight-year-old, but that horizon could arrive sooner than anyone had hoped. When it does come, Lau must decide where one of the sport’s all-time greats will live and who will care for him. It might well be his jockey, James McDonald.

“Both he and his wife, and his two daughters, are all crazy about the horse, they have a farm in Australia,” Lau said, but revealed he still has a decision to make on that front. 

“The original plan was to retire him at the farm in Ireland where he was born, and actually the owner there requested me a few years ago and I already said okay at the time. But now both the owner and the rider have expressed serious interest to keep the horse after retirement. So, now I should listen more to how, where and what they all intend to do to keep the horse before I make a final decision. This is the latest development.”

Romantic Warrior was bred and raised at David and James Egan’s Corduff Stud in Ireland before Mick Kinane bought him on behalf of HKJC for resale at the Hong Kong International Sale, where Lau bought him for HK$4.8 million.

It was far and away the best purchase Lau has made as a racehorse owner: Romantic Warrior’s record of 24 wins from 31 races includes victory in the Hong Kong Derby, every Hong Kong owner’s holy grail, as well as those four Hong Kong Cups; his home record alone puts him in the ‘legend’ category. But then there are his three brilliant offshore wins, the G1 Cox Plate in Australia, G1 Yasuda Kinen in Japan, G1 Jebel Hatta in Dubai, plus his epic second in the Saudi Cup.

Lau never had it so good as an owner, not even close. That meant, despite the money he paid for the unraced gelding back in 2021, his hopes were tempered by realism when Romantic Warrior debuted under Joao Moreira as the second-favourite in a 1200m Class 4 handicap at Happy Valley in October of that year. 

“If you study the history of my horse ownership before Romantic Warrior appeared, you will understand that there was not much anticipation,” Lau said. “My first two horses ran a total of fifty races, and I got myself one winner. So, at that time, racing in gate twelve at Happy Valley, I had almost no expectation. I’d have been happy to get prize money at that time.”

The gelding collected his winner’s share of the HK$1,040,000 purse that night, and those earnings have since swelled to HK$288,745,697. He is the highest earner, globally, in the sport’s history and the memories that have been formed through that journey are remarkable.

“Between then and now, the happiness, the pride and the memories he has given me already exceed ten times my wildest expectations,” Lau said. 

Among those memories is the day Romantic Warrior won the coveted Hong Kong Derby. It was March 2022, the gelding’s seventh race: he had won five of the previous six, including the Hong Kong Classic Mile, but had placed only fourth in the Hong Kong Classic Cup at his latest start. It was also deep in the dark days of COVID, when Hong Kong was still under government-required pandemic restrictions on the movement of people and of gathering together.

Those measures were even stricter at times within the HKJC sphere as the Club worked with great caution to keep racing going. When Derby day came around, only persons vital to the operation of the race meeting were allowed on course. No fans, no owners.   

“I had to watch the Derby on TV at home, I had no choice because not one person was allowed to go at that time. Winning it is good, but after your horse crosses the line, you find you are in your pyjamas,” he laughed. “That’s not like in the racecourse of course, but anyhow, I was still happy.”

But it is that unusual experience which drives him to want a second Derby success, one he can witness in person and celebrate publicly.  

“A Derby win is always a very precious one for an owner because a horse can only try once in their career and I’m lucky enough to be one of those owners. But I’m unlucky enough to be the only winning owner in Hong Kong history that has no winning photo, no award presentation, not even one fan in the audience in the stand because of the COVID situation at that time. 

“So, I definitely do want to win it again and I want it badly. So that is still a driving force to fulfill my ongoing ambitions. I want to give it a go again.”

To that end, he seeks out Derby prospects each year, usually through spring and summer, when his bloodstock advisor, Eric Sze, sources potential purchases through his network. They don’t come cheaply – seven figures sterling is the rate for a proven Group-class prospect out of Europe – and they don’t always work out.

“We go back and forth very constantly, but we do have a strategy and it is always pointing in the direction of getting a Derby horse,” Lau said. “The pedigree should have some long distance influence from the dam side or sire and preferably from the northern hemisphere because in Hong Kong history, there are not many good long distance southern hemisphere horses, I think. 

“And he should have racing experience, from two to five races at the middle distance or longer: if it’s five races, then at least one of those should be a Listed or Group race and they must have done well in that. And last but not least, my motto about horse racing is that I do not mind buying the right horse at the wrong price. It is much better than buying a mediocre horse at the right price. That’s my strategy.”

Lau made a big bid for recent Goodwood Group 2 winner Dr Rascal, which was not accepted.

“This is the way: if it’s too easy, sometimes, I worry,” he said. “It’s usual that a good one, a lot of people are going after that horse, but we have to try.

“I have three horses now: one of those, Romantic Thor, was fourth in the Champions and Chater Cup; Romantic Gladiator will be my Derby dream, my Derby hope in the coming season. And, actually, I have a ballot in hand, so we made an offer of seven figures just a few weeks ago, but still got knocked back. They decided to give it a go at Goodwood and they were right.”

When Idol Horse spoke to Lau two years ago, he singled out the Yasuda Kinen victory in Japan as his highlight. But much has happened since then.

“It is difficult to single out one particular race,” he said. “The most dramatic win is certainly the Cox Plate because the roller coaster move from what looked like losing to winning within the twenty seconds of the photo finish, is just as dramatic as it can get. 

“And the most exciting one is the Jebel Hatta in Dubai. He came from ten lengths back and won by four lengths. That was exciting. And the most happy one is the Yasuda Kinen in Tokyo, when under heavy rain, we received thundering cheers from hundreds of Hong Kong fans and also tens of thousands of Japanese fans.

“But the win which we are most proud of is the Hong Kong Cup, the first time, against a very strong international field. We won by four lengths. So these are the few which touch my feelings the most.”

That first Hong Kong Cup win in 2022, defeating Japanese Group 1 stars Danon The Kid, Geoglyph, Jack D’Or, Lei Papale and Panthalassa, is the race that had Lau thinking he had a horse that was something particularly special. 

“I said wow, well maybe this is going to be one of the all-time greats. I started thinking about that around that time.”

He has since gone on to prove it. Lau drops the name of another all-time great, the fantastic American gelding John Henry, a two-time Horse of the Year in the U.S., winner of 39 of 83 races including two Arlington Millions, a couple of Santa Anita Handicaps and the Jockey Club Gold Cup, whose second Horse of the Year title in 1984 was achieved at age nine. 

“Romantic Warrior is almost nine years old now, so I think win or lose, he’s already in history, but I think given his performance last time and if he’s still keeping his form, I think there is some chance that he can be another John Henry,” Lau said.

Different places, different times, both incredible champions, and that’s the level at which Romantic Warrior should be remembered whenever his career does conclude.  

“When we talk about legacy, Romantic Warrior has won races from 1200 metres to 2400 metres,” Lau observed. “He has won Group 1 races in four Group 1 jurisdictions; started winning when he was three and he did not stop winning when he’s almost nine. And of course, the prize money legacy: his earnings are now US$37 million and counting, that’s more than the Australian legend Winx.

“I think actually we should have someone from the Guinness Book of World Records to count his legacy,” he said with humour.

So, with the temporary uncertainty around the true nature of what Romantic Warrior’s scan means for his career, Lau can only wait and hope that the dream is not yet over. But if it is, he knows the horse has already given him far more than the young boy in Causeway Bay could have imagined.

“I just enjoy my present moment with him now, one race by one race,” Lau added. “And even if he retired tomorrow, I would consider myself the luckiest and happiest owner in the world. That’s my feeling now.” ∎

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