Able Friend, Hong Kong’s latest champion and a favourite with the crowds who is beginning to approach the popularity of greats of the past like Silent Witness, won the HK $14m (£1.15m) Champions Mile at Sha Tin on Sunday in a style that encouraged thoughts that there may not be a horse anywhere capable of giving him a race at the trip.
There were rumours leading up to the race that the world’s joint top-rated racehorse had been less than himself in his recent work. “A little bit flat”; “not right in his coat”; “maybe over the top after being at a peak since December” had been among the remarks favoured by the nose-tappers who had been unimpressed by his recent G2 victory over the same Sha Tin mile that has seen him unbeaten since his second place to Variety Club in this race last year.
What is more Luger, brilliant winner of the Hong Kong Derby after a three wide trip, was being touted as a worthy rival guaranteed to exploit any weaknesses in the favourite.
The trainer John Moore had done his best to dispel the scares, insisting he had left something to work on before Able Friend’s previous outing. Able Friend’s regular jockey João Moreira, Hong Kong’s champion-elect who will break the all time record for winners in a single season here sometime in the next few weeks, played his part with “a grin from here to Beijing” after Thursday’s final piece of work. Still, though, some had doubts.
In the race there was never the slightest need for them. Sitting second-last in the six runner field, Moreira tracked Luger for as long as he could maintain respect for him, pulled out to go past him early in the straight, and then without ever touching his mount with the whip coasted past the his opponents, including the front-running winner of last year’s Singapore International Airlines Cup, his stablemate Dan Excel, as though this was just another exercise gallop. The five year old cruised up to win completely untested in a moderate time of 1min 35.39sec.
The winning margin was only 1¼ lengths but that gives no indication of the derisive ease with which the race was won.
The target now for the Australian-bred son of Shamardal is the Queen Anne at Royal Ascot in which Moore would be confident of taking on any horse that cares to turn up, including last year’s Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome if that should be his chosen target.
“Yes, he’s outstanding” said Moreira after his effortless victory. “He does everything easily. I just wanted to make things as uncomplicated as I could. He’s a dream horse, the best horse in the world.” Connections of Solow might be willing to dispute that judgment, but certainly no one in Hong Kong would.
Moore was more cautious, saying: “We’ll give it four or five days to see how he pulls up and then the owner Dr Cornell Li will sit down for lunch to decide.” The fact that Moore was already talking about “a month or so in a green field at Newmarket” after Ascot for his champion before considering the option of the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood was a pretty clear indication of his thinking. The owner, of course, makes the decisions, more so in Hong Kong than anywhere else, but Dr Li appeared to confirm Moore’s opinion. “He’s not my horse any more. He’s Hong Kong’s horse,” said the veteran owner.
