He conquered the Group One Cox Plate (2,040m) in Melbourne in October and now Romantic Warrior will be set for an audacious tilt at June’s Group One Yasuda Kinen (1,600m) in Japan.

While his only victory over 1,600m came against his own age in the 2022 Classic Mile, Romantic Warrior has run Golden Sixty to a length over the trip and trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing believes Tokyo’s undulating surface will play into his galloper’s hands.

“He’s good. He’s been working well and he’ll trial on Tuesday,” said Shum, confirming the Group One Gold Cup (2,000m) in three weeks and April’s Group One QE II Cup (2,000m) are next on the agenda for Romantic Warrior.

“Then we will aim at the Yasuda Kinen if everything is OK. That track in Japan, the 1,600m is similar to 1,800m. It’s a long straight and it’s up and down, so I think he can handle it.”

Romantic Warrior’s owner, Peter Lau Pak-fai, co-founded Japan Home Centre and has links to the country through business.

“The owner has always wanted to go to Japan and he’s already told me he wants to go to the Yasuda Kinen. I’m pretty happy to go,” Shum said.

Hong Kong has tasted Yasuda Kinen success twice before, with Fairy King Prawn winning for Ivan Allan in 2000 and Tony Cruz’s Bullish Luck prevailing in 2006.

Purton not so Lucky

Six-time Hong Kong champion jockey Zac Purton has lost the ride on the world’s best sprinter, Lucky Sweynesse.

Victorious in 11 of his 17 rides aboard Lucky Sweynesse, including three at Group One level, it seems Purton has paid the price for the speedster’s disappointing sixth in last weekend’s Group One Centenary Sprint Cup (1,200m), after which he was found to be lame.

Trainer Manfred Man Ka-leung confirmed he has approached James McDonald to ride Lucky Sweynesse in next month’s Group One Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1,400m).

It would be the superstar Kiwi’s second time joining forces with Lucky Sweynesse after they combined to take out last year’s Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup after Purton sided with California Spangle, although he may well have to make a choice between the five-year-old and recent Group One Stewards’ Cup (1,600m) winner Voyage Bubble.

Hardware issue halts app betting

Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges estimates a hardware problem hit turnover on Sunday’s Classic Mile card at Sha Tin by as much as HK$40 million.

A connectivity issue plagued the Jockey Club’s betting application from 10 minutes before the first race at 1pm until after the second event, with as many as 80 per cent of app users impacted.

“Some people could log in, others not. It depends what network you were on,” said Engelbrecht-Bresges. “An external data centre who provides internet services had a hardware problem and only some of our apps worked.

“We had to shift the load. We have the two data centres, Sha Tin and Happy Valley, and it is normally 50-50 or 60-40, but we shifted the traffic so there was 20 per cent only at Sha Tin and 80 per cent at Happy Valley. Then we could resume the normal service.

“We have to do a calculation but my gut feeling is that it could be around HK$20 to HK$40 million.”

Turnover for the meeting was a tick over HK$1.5 billion, 6 per cent down on last season’s corresponding fixture.

Technicians were hard at work after the last race in a bid to rectify the hardware issue and ensure there were no hiccups with football betting on Sunday evening.

Debutant lights up Sha Tin

Illuminous had to settle for lighting up the Classic Mile undercard at Sha Tin on Sunday but trainer Frankie Lo Fu-chuen is hopeful his impressive four-year-old will enter the prestigious Classic Series at some stage.

Settled at the back of the field from barrier six by Karis Teetan, Illuminous hugged the rail before easing off at the top of the straight and piercing through traffic in the final 200m.

“He’s a small horse and he was delayed a few weeks before he came to Hong Kong,” Lor said of Illuminous, who weighs in at only 999 pounds.

“If everything was OK before, I think I would’ve raced him today in the Classic Mile, but the delay held him up a little bit.

“He won really well. The jockey said the pace was fast and that was really good. Usually he comes strong from behind and that’s why I thought he should be OK in the Classic Mile, and maybe over 2,000m also in the Derby.”

Sent off at $19.8 after only managing to win a maiden in country Victoria from seven starts in Australia, the 65-rated Illuminous finished half a length clear of fellow Hong Kong debutant Young Champion.

Lor will now weigh up whether he tries to get Illuminous to the second leg of the four-year-old series, the Classic Cup (1,800m) on March 3, or steps him up more gradually in trip in handicap company.