2026 News
Romantic Warrior, Ka Ying Rising too much for JRA's Masquerade Ball, Satono Reve on FWD Champions Day in Hong Kong
Masquerade Ball (1st from right)
Satono Reve (2nd from right)
On any other day, in any other race, Masquerade Ball and Satono Reve ran well enough to win. They were just up against the wrong opposition in Hong Kong on Sunday (April 26). In the face of a couple of Hong Kong legends in Romantic Warrior and Ka Ying Rising, the JRA’s Masquerade Ball and Satono Reve finished runnerup on FWD Champions Day at Sha Tin Racecourse in the flagship Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup and Chairman’s Sprint Prize, respectively. The 4-year-old Masquerade Ball, the Grade 1 Tenno Sho (Autumn) champion, came within a length of the race’s four-time winner Romantic Warrior, trained by Danny Shum and ridden by James McDonald, who earned his 14th career G1 victory in style. But all things considered, it was the best Masquerade Ball could do against the 8-year-old gelding who stormed to his fourth QEII Cup triumph. Also from the JRA, the Haruki Sugiyama-trained Giovanni came in a distant fifth with Hidenori Take’s June Take bringing up the rear in a field of eight. “Disappointing. Close but no cigar,” Masquerade Ball’s trainer Takahisa Tezuka said of his colt. “He was calm throughout the race, settled and was loose. His temperament is his quality, and there were absolutely no issues there. He responded when the jockey asked him to. All in all it was far from a bad performance. “I thought he ran really well considering the buildup he had. We need to take care of him really well now, and work him back to being the racehorse that he’s capable of being to do Japan proud again.” Jockey Christophe Lemaire felt the same way about his mount who went off as the second betting favourite behind only Romantic Warrior. “It was close but he ran a really good race,” the French rider said. “He showed what he’s made of. It was a good day for him. The kick he had down the last 300m was incredible.” McDonald paid Masquerade Ball quite the compliment, saying the colt gave Romantic Warrior his “toughest-ever” challenge out of his four wins. “I thought the opposition today was very warranted, and had great respect for it and was actually quite worried about it with that Masquerade Ball,” McDonald said. “I thought he was incredible, and he is one of the best in Japan.” “His run in the Japan Cup (Grade 1) was nothing short of incredible. We had great respect for him today, and if he was ever going to get beaten, it was a horse like that.” At least there was a flicker of hope for Masquerade Ball. The Noriyuki Hori-trained Satono Reve, back-to-back winner of the Grade 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen, crossed the line more than four lengths after Ka Ying Rising in the Grade 1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize. The 5-year-old gelding trained by David Hayes, under Zac Purton, was in a league of his own as he romped to his 20th consecutive win in a record time of 1 minute, 7.1 seconds. Joao Moreira, who saddled Satono Reve on this afternoon, said there was not a lot more his 7-year-old could do against arguably the most unbeatable racehorse on the planet at the moment, also rated the highest in the world. Satono Reve settled for silver to Ka Ying Rising for the second straight year. “(Satono Reve) absolutely runs his heart out every time and he’s a warrior,” Moreira said. “Unfortunately, we were up against the best sprinter in the world this time. I’m still very happy with his performance.” In the Grade 1 Champions Mile, four-time G1 champion and first choice Jantar Mantar fell to a disappointing 13th out of 14, one place behind fellow Japanese raider Strauss. The Jantar Mantar team attributed the shocking result from last season’s top miler in Japan to a poor start to the race, when the 5-year-old used up too much horse early on. By the time Yuga Kawada’s mount turned for home, there was not much left in the tank. “He put together a string of results to get here and we were confident in our second try in Hong Kong,” Kawada said. “The way the performance, the result turned out is just extremely disappointing.” Official results; Sprint, Mile, Cup
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