Romantic Warrior’s 2024 campaign could – and should – have Hong Kong’s champion in the thick of the voting for a rare accolade as an overseas contender for the Japan Racing Association’s (JRA) title of ‘Best Miler’, due to be announced on January 7 ahead of the annual awards ceremony on January 27.
The JRA Awards have been on the go since 1987, spanning multiple categories, including Horse of the Year, but never has an offshore raider been named as an award winner. To succeed in that, a horse must show enough merit to convince the body of no more than 300 voters – made up largely of journalists – that they are superior to Japan’s strong domestic contingent.
Romantic Warrior’s brilliant triumph in the G1 Yasuda Kinen in June means that he must be a serious contender for the honour, which until Songline won the first outright Best Miler title in 2023 was a combined division, lumping sprinters and milers into one category.
Hong Kong’s brilliant champion enters considerations because the JRA Awards are open not only to JRA horses racing on the JRA circuit, but also to horses that shipped in from offshore to compete in JRA stakes races, as well as to horses that contested JRA and NAR (National Association of Racing) exchange races and Japanese horses that competed in stakes races abroad.
History is not on his side: Mairzy Doates, Golden Pheasant, Snow Fairy and Aerovelocity all picked up one vote after their Group 1 heroics in Japan, while Horlicks received four in the older filly and mare category after her 1989 Japan Cup win.
But it isn’t difficult to make a case for Romantic Warrior. His Yasuda Kinen win saw him defeat the top-class Namur by half a length with Soul Rush a further nose back in third; Soul Rush franked that form when winning Japan’s only other Group 1 at the distance, the Mile Championship, when he had Europe’s star miler Charyn in fifth; Soul Rush was then second-best in the Hong Kong Mile at Sha Tin in December behind Voyage Bubble, an admirable Group 1 galloper but inferior to Romantic Warrior.
Meanwhile, Romantic Warrior stepped back up to 2000 metres to defeat Japan’s crack mare Liberty Island in the G1 Hong Kong Cup that same afternoon, claiming a record third win in the race and ending the year with five wins from as many starts and the world record for most prize money.
Of course, the select voters in Japan might well look at Romantic Warrior as a fly-in-fly-out interloper and count his single run as being insufficient to nick the divisional title: Soul Rush, for example, raced five times exclusively at the mile distance, four of those in Japan, for his Group 1 win, a Group 2 triumph and three minor top-three placings.
In this time of Japanese racing’s consolidation as a world power, Romantic Warrior’s ability to go and triumph on Japanese turf means he should at the very least be in the shake-up. And the fact that he beat the best milers Japan could muster surely gives him strong leverage for the title of ‘Best’.
Besides, that one-win performance metric is good enough for the World’s Best Racehorse Rankings (WBRR) award, which is determined by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA).
The Dubai-based Laurel River is in pole position for that prize, thanks to one stunning performance in the G1 Dubai World Cup in March that wrapped up his entire 2024 campaign for two wins from three starts. The WBRR top award is given to the horse that receives the highest rating in a single race and Laurel River was given a mark of 128.
No one could argue with much credibility that Laurel River is a better race horse or a superior champion than Romantic Warrior whose peak 2024 rating of 122 (up to the latest published ratings dated November 10, so before his Hong Kong Cup win), placed him outside the top 10 in the world on that narrow measurement.
Some independent ratings organisations have already raised Romantic Warrior’s rating according to their own parameters, so perhaps Romantic Warrior’s ‘official’ IFHA rating will also adjust to match or even surpass Laurel River before the final WBRR award for 2024 is handed out in London on January 21.
The WBRR is a worthy attempt to market the sport via the concept of an outright, quantifiable ‘world champion’, but really it could do with a rebrand or a redesign: right now it is essentially the ‘World’s Highest Rated Performance’ and that leaves the way open for a more rounded ‘World’s Best’ decided by panel and/or a select vote, which would take into account the variables that all come together to make a credible champion.
Romantic Warrior’s achievements in 2024 were outstanding and rolled on the back of his incredible win in the G1 Cox Plate in Australia in October 2023. That Moonee Valley victory was the start of a seven-race, ongoing 14-month unbeaten streak: all such achievements should be factored into any ‘World’s Best’ discussion.
That back story and the weight of his accomplishments should be relevant, too, when it comes to the considerations of the Japanese voters who will decide the JRA’s Best Miler title.
The reality is, whether he receives that officially-stamped recognition or not, Romantic Warrior stands as the best horse to have won a stakes race at a mile in Japan in 2024, vote or no vote ∎
