Hong Kong Postscripts

Now that the Hong Kong International Races are in the books, here are a few postscripts:

1. Able Friend is no longer a budding star -- after the Hong Kong Mile, he's officially an international powerhouse.

From a potentially dicey spot behind horses near the rear, the brute angled out and delivered the coup de grace with an other-worldly final 200 meters (about a quarter-mile) in :21.71. Able Friend blitzed the field in (almost) a single bound. To underscore the quality of this performance, note that Trade Storm, the third-place finisher in the Breeders' Cup Mile, could do no better than seventh here.

That raw ability to turn on the afterburners on a dime, and win geared down by a race-record 4 1/4 lengths as your rider starts the victory party early, makes you a serious miler anywhere in the world.

Let's just hope that we get to see Able Friend go global. Trainer John Moore indicated just how eager he is to send the son of Shamardal to Dubai, with the proviso that his owner, Dr. Cornel Li Fook Kwan, might not be as willing.

"I'll do my utmost to convince the owner to go for the Dubai Duty Free -- but that might be a long lunch and a lot of alcohol," Moore said.

2. Moore again proved that he has perfected the art of getting horses absolutely spot-on for the big occasion, as he scored an HKIR double with Designs on Rome in the about 1 1/4-mile Hong Kong Cup.

Designs on Rome provides a case study of a training philosophy that is quite different from what we usually see in the United States. Our typical training style emphasizes fitness off morning works. So looking at Designs on Rome's past performances from the perspective of an American fan, it would be easy to misread his starts this fall as a loss of his stellar form from the spring.

But in fact, the Australian-born Moore is employing their tried-and-true method of racing a horse into peak form, often starting out at unsuitably short distances and stepping up incrementally. Designs on Rome was basically getting some "match practice" to bring him on for his real objective.

The match practice was also an opportunity for jockey Joao Moreira to learn the secret to riding him. Designs on Rome needs to be driven on a long way from home, giving him ample time to gather momentum before he reaches top speed -- a totally different type from his push-button stablemate Able Friend.