QUEENSLAND SPIRIT EVIDENT IN HONG KONG CUP CLASH

By Darren Winningham | Friday, December 12, 2025

At the barrier allocation ceremony at Sha Tin, I got the opportunity to catch up with Barry Taylor, part-owner of Galen who will contest the HK$40 million LONGINES HONG KONG CUP.

Galen is a four-year-old gelding trained by Joseph O’Brien and is a horse who is in form and on the way up. Taylor was bullish about his chances.

“It’s a pleasure to be here for a start,” said Taylor.

“If you take his run in Bahrain, where he ran second to Royal Champion, who had run third to Delacroix, who is the Cartier Three-Year-Old Colt Of The Year … and you take a line through it … and then she he is taking on a sit and run horse like Romantic Warrior, whereas Galen is a jump to the lead horse, it will be an interesting race.”

The stable fully intends to jump and lead in the small field and then make Romantic Warrior try to chase them down, and Taylor was confident that his horse could test the Hong Kong champion.

Taylor went on to speculate about the fitness of Romantic Warrior after his injury, surgery and subsequent return to racing.

“He (Romantic Warrior) has been off the scene for 298 days. He had a very hard run first up. You know as well as I do, horses that are in situations where they have come back from injuries, especially when they have had operations, you do not know what is going to be there.

“Ours is a very fit horse, a very strong horse, no injuries and well trained by Joseph O'Brien. He is going to be well ridden by Dylan Brown McMonagle.”

Those issues aside, the stable’s confidence also as well on the back of Galen’s trackwork leading into the race.
Trainer Joseph O’Brien said: “He is fit and he has had a busy season. He has campaigned internationally as well as domestically. It was a great run last time, a career-best, and he likes to go right-handed and forward.”

I had to ask Taylor if there is any chance, we may see Galen in Australia in the future?

“Well, you heard me up there say, myself and two partners, Cam Massey and Goetz Maeuser own fifty percent of him and we are all Australians, we live in Brisbane and Noosa. We want him down there,” said Taylor.

“We have got some very good partners in the other fifty percent. After we ran second at Ascot, we were only narrowly beaten by Richard Hannon horse, Haatem, we wanted to bring him down and he will get there. We will just see what happens with him.

We know here some of Taylor’s air of confidence comes from … because we all recognise that unique QLD spirit – believe in yourself – they love being the underdog and causing an upset.

So, the scene is set with the QLD spirit has teamed up with the luck of the Irish … will that combination shine through at Sha Tin on Sunday?

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