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INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

DECEMBER 13, 2014

Hong Kong Mile: Friend's Able to become international star

by Kellie Reilly

Able Friend sauntered home in deceptively fast time in the local prep (Hong Kong Jockey Club) Hong Kong Mile favorite Able Friend looms as the likeliest winner of any of Sunday's International Races. The massively talented son of Shamardal would have to regress beyond any reasonable expectation to lose in this spot. Long touted as an international Group 1 horse by trainer John Moore, Able Friend has the burst of speed, both instantaneous and lethal, to succeed at this level. The chestnut powerhouse has won four of five starts over this course and distance, including the January 19 Hong Kong Classic Mile over stablemate (and HK Cup threat) Designs on Rome; the April 6 Chairman's Trophy; and perhaps most spectacularly, the November 23 Jockey Club Mile. That local course-and-distance prep illustrates just how tough Able Friend is to beat. Moore had cautioned that the robust gelding was still short of fitness in only his second start of the new Hong Kong season. He had resumed with a fine fourth in the October 26 Premier Bowl at about six furlongs, lugging the top weight of 133 pounds. The return to a mile next time was intended to round off his preparation for this main event. But no one told Able Friend that he wasn't fully cranked, or that he'd need this race. Under a hand ride from Joao Moreira, he blew away defending champion Gold-Fun in a blistering time of 1:33.46. Able Friend doesn't have to improve an iota to win this, and the scary thought is, that he might. Considering the apparent ease of his victory, he doesn't figure to bounce either.

Sometimes we can learn even more about a horse from his losses, and Able Friend comes off as exceptional type in this department too. His only reverse at a mile came at the hands of South African supremo Variety Club in the May 4 Champions Mile, where Able Friend was best of the rest in second. There's no one of Variety Club's stature here. Able Friend also performed with great credit over longer distances in Hong Kong's four-year-old series, yielding to Designs on Rome in the about nine-furlong Classic Cup February 16 and gallantly battling him in a half-length loss in the March 16 Hong Kong Derby at about 1 1/4 miles.

Although drawn widest of all in post 11, Able Friend doesn't figure to be hindered by it. Three of the last four HK Mile winners were stuck in double-digit posts. It's usually a negative to be parked out wide at Sha Tin, but if you're some way the best, at least you'll be in the clear and not buried in traffic.

Gold-Fun, the well-beaten second to Able Friend in the Jockey Club Mile, helps to put the winner's performance in perspective. Hong Kong's reigning champion miler, Gold-Fun was runner-up to Glorious Days in last year's HK Mile. And he has lifted a pair of local (as opposed to international) Group 1s, the 2013 Classic Mile and the March 16 Queen's Silver Jubilee. Gold-Fun has finished in the exacta in nine of 12 career starts at a mile, and he could be the controlling speed in the hands of Douglas Whyte.

In the 2012 HK Mile, Ambitious Dragon beat Glorious Days, who went on to win the 2013 edition (Hong Kong Jockey Club) Two past HK Mile winners are seeking to recapture the glory -- defending champion Glorious Days and his 2012 conqueror, Ambitious Dragon. Glorious Days, who was also runner-up in 2012, is in danger of being the forgotten horse. Trainer John Size is taking the exact same route that worked so well last year, bringing the Hussonet gelding in fresh without a prep. In both cases, he was last seen finishing unplaced in Tokyo's Yasuda Kinen in early June. The one scruple is that he may have been in better form in the winter and spring of 2013 than 2014. Unplaced when defending his title in the January 19 Stewards' Cup, he was a belated fourth to Variety Club and Able Friend in the Champions Mile. On the other hand, he was a much better sixth in Tokyo, and he should be rattling late. Ambitious Dragon, formerly Hong Kong's two-time Horse of the Year, was simply sublime in his heyday. It's arguable that Glorious Days' victory here last year was a compliment to the 2012 winner, then in the midst of an 18-month absence due to injury. Now an eight-year-old, "The Dragon" has shown glimmers of his old fire in his two starts off the bench. Tony Millard turned in a terrific training performance to have him return with a close third to Military Attack (HK Cup contender) in the October 26 Oriental Watch Sha Tin Trophy, and he followed up with a third to Able Friend and Gold-Fun in the local prep.

The booking of English ace Ryan Moore only seemed to add to the potential fairy tale outcome here. Unfortunately, The Dragon turned up lame in his right front earlier this week, and is now in a race against time. Then again, he overcame an injury cloud to win handsomely in 2012.

The last foreigner to beat the locals on their own turf in the HK Mile was Japan's Hat Trick, all the way back in 2005, and one again has to look East to find the likeliest challengers to Hong Kong's stranglehold. Japan fields a four-strong team, comprising Grand Prix Boss (the most accomplished), Fiero (the dashing up-and-comer), World Ace (the slight underachiever who's got a big one in him) and Hana's Goal (the outsider).

Grand Prix Boss owns two Grade 1 wins at home, in the 2010 Asahi Hai Futurity and the 2011 NHK Mile Cup, but he's awfully close to having a total of five. Just missing in Japan's two premier mile contests in 2012 -- the Yasuda Kinen and Mile Championship -- he again suffered a tough beat by Just a Way in the June 8 renewal of the Yasuda Kinen. Grand Prix Boss was last behind Ambitious Dragon here in 2012, but is reportedly in much better shape for this swan song. That makes sense, since he's coming off a fourth in the October 5 Sprinters Stakes and a closing sixth in the November 23 Mile Championship, suggesting that he's still on an upward curve this form cycle.

Fiero has a captivating pedigree, being by Deep Impact and out of a full sister to all-star miler Rock of Gibraltar. The late developer has been sparingly raced, and was only ready to try stakes company this year at the age of five. Best of the rest to record-setting World Ace in his Grade 2 debut in the April 27 Yomiuri Milers Cup, he was eighth after a slow start in the Yasuda Kinen. Fiero came back to finish a barnstorming third in the November 1 Swan off a five-month holiday, and he looked the surefire winner as he split rivals and forged clear in the Mile Championship. Frustratingly, he seemed to idle in front, and got robbed on a brutal head-bob by Danon Shark in a stakes-record time of 1:31.5. The question is whether Fiero can follow up three weeks later. On the plus side, it's a similar pattern to Able Friend, and trainer Hideaki Fujiwara has said that the HK Mile was his major end-of-the-year target.

World Ace has longshot appeal (Hong Kong Jockey Club) World Ace strikes me as the most intriguing of the Japanese shippers, but admittedly, I've always had a soft spot for this son of Deep Impact. His dam, German classic-placed Mandela, is an Acatenango half-sister to multiple highweight Manduro. Among the leading sophomores of 2012, World Ace was second to Gold Ship in the Satsuki Sho (Japanese Two Thousand Guineas) and fourth in the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby). He was sidelined thereafter, and out of action for all of 2013. The Yasutoshi Ikee pupil made his second start back in the Yomiuri Milers Cup and blitzed them, comfortably, in a record 1:31.4. He's yet to deliver that kind of performance in this three ensuing starts -- a staying-on fifth in the Yasuda Kinen, a no-show 13th in the October 12 Mainichi Okan and a slow-starting eighth in the Mile Championship. Interestingly, Ikee was bold enough to say that World Ace could have won with a sensible break. And all four of his career wins have come at right-handed tracks, so he rates as a serious sleeper. Hana's Goal has been well beaten in her Japanese Grade 1s, which is why she ventured to Australia in search of a top-level win. In her third try Down Under, the mare accomplished her mission in the April 26 All Aged Stakes at Randwick. Hana's Goal has shown little in her two outings this fall, most recently trudging home ninth to Able Friend. But she's been aggressive in her training at Sha Tin of late, and jockey Nash Rawiller believes she's sitting on a better effort.

English raiders Trade Storm and Captain Cat are both eligible to get up for the contentious minor awards, but neither looks good enough to take the prize. Trade Storm, who has had success in Dubai and North America, is 0-for-7 lifetime going right-handed. Nevertheless, the reigning Woodbine Mile hero, and rallying third in the Breeders' Cup Mile last out, will be running on late. Captain Cat is an improving type, having landed the August 14 Sovereign at Salisbury and the September 6 Superior Mile at Haydock. Although he's got something to prove at the Group 1 level, his fifth in the October 18 Queen Elizabeth II at Ascot was sneaky-good, since it came on ground far too soft for him. Captain Cat could profit by the addition of cheekpieces here, and he will get his preferred fast ground.

Additional thoughts on the Mile will be posted on the TwinSpires.com blog Saturday.

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