Russian Emperor underlined elite staying prowess to join a select band of multiple winners of the Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (G1) under a masterful ride by Hugh Bowman Sunday at Sha Tin in Hong Kong as trainer Douglas Whyte reveled in one of the highlights of an extraordinary career.
Denying raging favorite Romantic Warrior by a neck in a stirring battle, Russian Emperor etched his name alongside a string of greats to win the final Group 1 of the Hong Kong season at least twice since 1990, joining River Verdon, Viva Pataca, Exultant, Indigenous, Oriental Express, and Blazing Speed.
Whyte, a 13-time champion jockey, snared his fourth Group 1 as a trainer and was clearly moved by the magnitude of 2022 winner Russian Emperor's latest feat after the regally bred gelding swept from fifth place on the turn to cut down Romantic Warrior, who led from the start and came under heavy pressure from Money Catcher 800 meters out in the 2,400-meter (about 1 1/2-mile) contest.
Clocking 2:26.87, Russian Emperor almost certainly clinched Hong Kong's champion stayer title for the second season in a row as Romantic Warrior staved off a charging Five G Patch to hold second.
“He's (Russian Emperor) a superstar of my stable and he's certainly given me one hell of a ride since he's joined me. We've had our ups and downs, but there's been a lot more ups than downs,” Whyte said, referencing February's successful sortie to the Middle East, where the 6-year-old gelding by champions Galileo and Atlantic Jewel, by Fastnet Rock, won the The Amir Trophy, a Group 1 race in Qatar.
“To travel with him and winning in Doha, and coming back now to repeat that effort on a firm track. You've just got to give it all to the horse. When he won in Doha that was probably the highlight of my career, both as a jockey and a trainer, to go abroad and do that.
“The issues he has to deal with, and then you get a win out of him in a race today on a track that doesn't suit him and it just takes you to another level.
“It's certainly one of the better performances he's done and one of the highlights of my career. But I don't stop there, there's the vets, there's the farriers – there's a whole bunch of people I should be thanking because they're the ones that do the day-to-day work to get this horse to the races and I take the glory and so does the jockey.”
Praising unflappable Bowman, Whyte said the Australian's ride was “patience personified, really.”
“He's a great jockey to have on a horse, especially in a big race like that. He makes a difference. They were getting cheap sectionals early, the favourite looked like he was just ambling along and dictating affairs.
“Hugh sussed that out and got rolling at the right time. He dug down deep and prevailed. It was a well-executed ride, a very heady ride. He put him to sleep and let things unfold and took advantage of that at the end.”
Jubilating in his second Champions & Chater Cup triumph after Werther's 2017 success, Bowman said: “I didn't have a plan, he's (Russian Emperor) a mile-and-a-half horse, and the one trap I didn't fall into was to be out there to beat Romantic Warrior because he's a class horse. I had to trust that it (2,400 meters) would find him out and that's exactly what happened.
“He bounced well from a good gate (five), I had a good run and I could come into it at my leisure without coming into it trying to challenge the favorite–I came in to allow my horse to run his race. Douglas prepared him superbly. He's had a wonderful season, the horse, as has Douglas, and he was just there as the right horse on the right day.”
Jockey Zac Purton claimed Romantic Warrior would have won if Money Catcher, who finished fifth, had not pressured him at the 800 meter (mark), also citing stamina issues.
“He (Romantic Warrior) showed today it's (2,400 meters) not his favorite distance, but he tried bloody hard–he was gone at the 600 meters,” Purton said. “Coming into the straight, Money Catcher actually headed me and I thought he was going to drop out, and to his credit, he tried as hard as he could. It was just not his distance.
“We had no choice but to lead. We played our cards and he would have won the race if he didn't get taken on half a mile from home.”
Russian Emperor, who was bred in Ireland by Coolmore and Lauri Macri & Partners, began his career with Aidan O'Brien and was a Group 3 winner at Royal Ascot in 2020 and subsequently finished seventh in the Epsom Derby (G1) before he was sold to Hong Kong connections.
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