He’s put a few noses out of joint at Sports Road with his bold dirt ambitions in the Middle East but, really, what’s not to like about owner Peter Lau Pak-fai dreaming big with Romantic Warrior?

Much of what’s left for Lau’s champion to achieve on home soil – winning an unprecedented third straight Group One Hong Kong Cup (2,000m) and passing Golden Sixty’s prize money world record – can be ticked off by the end of the year.

From there, the eye-watering loot on offer in the world’s richest race, the Group One Saudi Cup (1,800m), and the Group One Dubai World Cup (2,000m) does a fair bit more to get the juices flowing than the prospect of another cookie-cutter local campaign.

The Hong Kong programme rarely changes and, as we saw with Golden Sixty, every season becomes basically a cut-and-paste job for top-end gallopers who don’t travel.

The concern of Jockey Club officials lies in the fact that if he were to race in Saudi Arabia, Romantic Warrior’s domestic season would almost certainly end at December’s Longines Hong Kong International Races.

For the international ratings of the Group One races Romantic Warrior could be absent from, this is very bad news indeed.

He’d miss the chance to defend his crown in February’s Group One Gold Cup (2,000m), which is on the same weekend as the Saudi Cup, and the quarantine situation between Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong means the six-year-old would also be absent from the second biggest meeting of the local season, April’s Champions Day.

Horses returning to Hong Kong from Saudi Arabia must do a 60-day washout in another country, as well as a further two weeks upon arrival at Sha Tin.

Even Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges knows that can’t be changed quickly enough to get Romantic Warrior home in time to chase a fourth straight Group One QE II Cup (2,000m) crown.

“We have tried to support Saudi to establish a health status, we had a special conference there to align the whole Middle East, but to establish this will likely take another year,” said Engelbrecht-Bresges, who, incidentally, has never come across as the biggest fan of dirt racing.

But, while the absence of Romantic Warrior could deprive the Gold Cup and QE II Cup of star power, what’s stopping officials using it as a selling point when trying to attract big-name overseas gallopers to Hong Kong?

Those races may not be worth US$20 million like the Saudi Cup, but the prize money is certainly not to be sneezed at. No Golden Sixty, no Romantic Warrior – come and fill your boots.

You only have to look back to May and the demolition job Godolphin’s Rebel’s Romance did in the Group One Champions & Chater Cup (2,400m) to see what overseas gallopers can do in Hong Kong features when there are no gun locals present.

As for the actual concept of eight-time turf Group One winner Romantic Warrior taking on the world’s best dirt horses in the richest race on the planet? It might not be as crazy as it seems.

The six-year-old showed his durability by jumping through hoop after hoop when travelling to Australia to win the Group One Cox Plate (2,040m), and his versatility when stepping back to a mile to snare the Group One Yasuda Kinen in Japan.

He’ll be far from the first turf horse to target the Saudi Cup – both Mishriff and Panthalassa, who finished 14 lengths adrift of Romantic Warrior in their only meeting, won the dirt contest despite spending most of their careers on grass.

Romantic Warrior is also very, very good, which should help, and connections will get the chance to dip their toes in the water without going all in from the outset, should they so choose.

January’s Group One Al Maktoum Challenge (1,900m) in Dubai could be used to give Romantic Warrior his first taste of the dirt surface under race conditions.

If everything were to go pear-shaped, connections could pull the rip cord and resume normal service in Hong Kong before encountering the Saudi Arabia quarantine headache.