Queen Anne Stakes 2015

Great news the monster is confirmed for the Queen Anne Stakes. This race is looking like a real belter now and could be the race of the week IMO. If Able Friend repeats what he did in the Hong Kong Mile CCM, it will take a very good one to beat him. He looked in awesome shape winning the Champions Mile a couple of weeks ago. I cannot wait.

It is surprising but that's the way they train in Hong Kong... running horses in barrier trials before a big race. He didn't really have a race in the Champions Mile, it was more like a piece of work.

90% to go is the view of Moore jr

So it's not just me keeping the faith with Integral then

Shaping up to be some race now.

Forest -  Integral is 20's+ now

I'd assumed they would send Integral to the Windsor Forest again.

Since 1971 Goldikova is the only filly/mare to win the Queen Anne. A fair point you make Figgis regarding the quality/quantity that have tried but it took a legend to break the sequence. Integral is a good mare and has proved it over the last couple of years but connections will probably be disappointed with the run Saturday. Stoute did seem very confident before the race maybe that confidence was slightly misplaced.

If I had to back one from the Lockinge it would be Toormore, he ran way too free early on and still nearly won. Plus, he was the one that connections felt would need the run more. He was also a tad unlucky in the race at Ascot last year.

I'm seeing double, I swear it posted the above twice... Sorry!

I posted on the Lockinge thread that I didn't think much of the race Saturday mainly because of the reasons you posted above Figgis. Never backed Toormore but was impressed how he toughed it out right to the line when he probably should have been going backwards at that point. Sort of tells me how good the race was.

It's Able Friend for me if he travels... he's a monster.

Great article on Able Friend below.

South China Morning Post

A willing and Able Friend: 'Gentle Giant' always the centre of attention.

Despite the giant chestnut's imposing stature at 17 hands, trainer John Moore and jockey Joao Moreira say there are few horses like the mild-mannered gelding

Able Friend strikes an imposing figure when walking out for trackwork each morning and performs his trademark pause, ears pricked, at the edge of the track. He also has the racetrack record to match the body builder physique, but by nature he is so quiet trainer John Moore reckons "a kid could ride him".

Descriptions of Able Friend's exploits usually include the words "monster" or "giant" - but rarely "gentle", "intelligent" let alone "lazy" - yet that is how the people closest to the world's equal highest-rated racehorse describe him.

"He is a gentle giant, nothing fazes him," Moore said of the 1,300-pound, nearly 17-hand monster that has swept all before him this season.

After a first-up defeat, Able Friend has steamrolled his opposition in effortless style and will be chasing six straight wins in today's HK$14 million Champions Mile, a win that would take his Hong Kong career earnings to HK$52.33 million.

Rarely does a horse boast the height and physique of Able Friend while still being able to move as gracefully as the five-year-old.

A kid may be able to ride him bareback, but no one other than race-day jockey Joao Moreira and regular trackwork rider Henry Wong Yu-hang are jumping aboard the chestnut, however mild-mannered he might be.

"He is very tall," Moreira said . "I can't touch the top of his head from the ground. I can only reach up just past his nose.

"But even though he is carrying so much weight, he uses it all to push him forward, that's why he goes so fast.

"He is amazing. There are very few horses like him in the world. When a horse the same size of him gallops usually, their whole body shakes and they are clumsy, their feet go everywhere - but he moves naturally."

That fancy footwork was on display two starts ago when Moreira was forced to extricate the horse out of a jam during the Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup. "As you saw that day, he can move his feet like a ballerina," he said.

Wong, a 24-year-old former-jockey, rides Able Friend more than anyone else and said the horse was "lazy and laid-back".

"He doesn't care about anything," Wong said. "But he seems to know what his job is."

In fact, Moreira says one of Able Friend's other great attributes is his intelligence and he even "trains himself".

"He has size, he has attitude, and he will express himself when he isn't feeling that well. And it's intelligence that really stands out.

"He knows himself and helps himself get fit," he said after some leisurely trackwork on Thursday. "When he is a bit fat, he seems to do more than he usually does. When he is extremely fit, he doesn't go that fast because he knows that he has to save it for race day. When he is fit, like today, he doesn't try that hard in trackwork."

Able Friend shares a characteristic of many great horses: of pausing to watch for a few minutes before heading on to the track.

"When you are riding a good horse and he wants to stop for a good look around, then you let him," Moreira said. "A lot of good horses do it. It's kind of like 'OK boy, you do whatever you want. But the donkey ones, you are like 'come on man, get moving'."

Extreme size isn't always a blessing in thoroughbred racehorses, especially in Hong Kong where firm surfaces can jar the joints of a less delicate mover.

"We usually don't buy such big horses," said the trainer's son and bloodstock agent George Moore, who purchased Able Friend on behalf of Cornel Li Fook-kwan for A$550,000 (HK$3.38 million) at the 2011 Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

"Most of the time a huge horse like that doesn't move well. That agility and athletic nature showed in the way he walked as a yearling. Nine times out of 10 when I show a horse that big to dad, he doesn't want to bring it here because it is too hard on them, but he was correct enough in his conformation to not only pass the vet checks but to stand up to the workload here.

"Having a horse with poor conformation, but a big engine like Able Friend's, is like having a Ferrari with no suspension, which you might get away with in Australia on slightly softer tracks, but not here.

"We have to have horses with excellent feet as well and even though Able Friend's feet are relatively small, for his size, they are obviously good enough to stand up to here."

Before the son of Shamardal and stakes-winning mare Ponte Piccolo even got to the sales he was bigger than the other foals in a well-grassed paddock at Turranga Farm in the Hunter Valley, but what stud owner Stuart Ramsey remembers most was the size of the colt's head, and how much grass he ate.

"He had a head on him only a mother would love," Ramsey said, adding that Able Friend's appetite meant he was only going to get bigger. He was an incredibly good 'doer' [meaning eater] and eventually he grew into that head and is now a magnificent looking animal."

Moore believes Able Friend's size comes from Shamardal's sire Giant's Causeway, although Ponte Piccolo could throw a big foal, too - albeit inconsistently.

"The foals were either too small or too big," said Ramsey, explaining why he sold the broodmare for just A$35,000 in 2013, before Able Friend's exploits as a four-year-old. "We are a commercial operation and we couldn't sell her foals."

Today when the fully grown Able Friend walks around the parade ring he will draw the usual oohs and ahhs from onlookers, but Moreira will coo to his "big buddy" like he would a child.

"We have a very good connection, mainly because I've been on him a few times now," the Brazilian said. "It might sound strange, but I do talk to him and it calms him down and he relaxes more. He understands the way I use my voice. I just call him 'big boy' and when I talk to him I feel he gets more confident in himself. He doesn't overrace and he does everything I ask."

And when Moreira asks for maximum effort, that's when the Able Friend that seems unbeatable is revealed with that stunning turn of foot, although the jockey hopes he doesn't have to draw the whip, as he did last start.

"That hurts me, I didn't want to hit him because there were horses sneaking up the inside that he might not have seen. I couldn't play with them," he said. "I don't think he ran up to his best that day. I wish I didn't have to draw the whip."

"When he does let down and sprint and stretch out, wow, it's an unbelievable feeling."

I think it's a fine line between getting one Gp1 race fit at home and not overdoing it, particularly with what has been described as a light framed mare. Goldikova has been mentioned and she was a complete flop on her first start in a Gp1 in one of her seasons. Trainers like O'Brien and Stoute have good records with fresh horses but I've heard both on occasions say they'd left more to work on than they meant to. Integral ran a bit fresh, which is something some horses do first time out, and when the difference between first and fourth is only one and a half lengths I don't think it's an insurmountable difference to make up. For me this year's Lockinge isn't the kind of solid form I'd expect to be repeated to the pound if the same horses met again.

NOT and Toormore are decent horses and are entitled to improve for their first run. But as good as they are, they low 120's horses or so and it's hard to argue they're any better than that. The Hong Kong horse could be anything and Solow was very impressive at Meydan; scorching turn of foot and kept galloping at the finish. Beat 3 very smart performers in 2nd, 3rd and 4th. That performance is 128 at a bare minimum in my view and quite possibly even better. Horse travels well and quickens sharply. Versatile with regards to the ground. Certainly the best miler around at the moment and probably the best since Frankel (or Kingman?)

9/4 could look massive come the day.

I wish the game was as easy as a trainer readying one at home then just point and shoot at the target. No matter the skills of a trainer at getting a runner fit enough to do itself justice in a race, some horses just don't fully come to hand (for want of a better phrase) very early in the season, particularly fillies/mares imo, and sometimes just a matter of weeks can make a difference. There have been countless examples of this down the years, with improvement shown in later runs, even by runners with previously well established form. All about opinions though.

How many kin winners of the race has he had with first time out kin runners!

Able Friend winning longines hong kong mile - https://youtu.be/uHUBRbIvnZk

We all have our own small biases, but I don't  like the fact that the two pacey sorts turned the home turn both with blinkers on and  finished close enough too the rest of field, and Able friend himself with cheekpieces on. just a minor thing really but it bothers me.Nothing wrong with the ratings or performance mind.

Metro - have a look at the Derby run of AF when he lost to DOR, don't think there's much wrong with him mentally, the cheek pieces help him, he certainly doesn't seem to shirk a battle. I'm looking forward to seeing the magic man put the gun to his head over a mile as he's not really had it before and he'll get it in June - he may find nothing and just be a bully in his own back yard, there will be a lot of disappointed people if he doesn't do the biz though....me included, many won't hear of defeat, but I'm a bit more pragmatic as I still think there's something there where he won't find anything when really put to the test - he won't be the first or last that does that!

I'm not questioning his resolve, just maybe that's as good as he is and he won't be any better when the persuader is used as if he does he'll be one hell of a horse as he was rated 127 without being asked a serious question

I know, HKAccie, it didn't read like you was, I just meant the general terms such horses are usually talked about.

Cheers HK, I will keep an eye on which race he goes for!!!

I'm 99% sure John Moore said in an interview last year that they could of took the cheek pieces/winkers off Able Friend but decided not to because they didn't see the need to change a winning formula. In all the races I seen him run he looks a very uncomplicated ride, he's not one of them that pulls himself up when he hits the front... he just keeps going, most of the time on the bit with brutal power and acceleration! The more I watch him the more confident I get. Don't go all pragmatic on us HK!

1m 33.46s with a final 400m (nearly 2F) split of 21.41s is pretty quick without being asked a question. Well, I think it is but I'm no speed figure guru.