Dragon's fire forces Moore to rethink plans for Xtension

It was a rare Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby as Ambitious Dragon stamped himself the next big thing in racing yesterday - no hard-luck stories and even John Moore looking to sidestep the winner in future.

'We might change course with Xtension and run in the Champions Mile instead of the QE II Cup,' he said after Xtension had run his heart out under Jeff Lloyd for second. 'I don't really want to keep running into that horse and Able One might not be at his best for the Champions Mile at that stage.'

With Mark Up and Handsome Zulu rolling the Derby field along at a good clip, none of the fears of a muddling pace surfaced and Ambitious Dragon stopped the clock at two minutes 1.5 seconds in the second-quickest Derby since it went to 2,000m 11 years ago.

And the true test made it all about the best horse and Ambitious Dragon (Maxime Guyon) left no doubt about which horse that was, as he again produced that twinkling acceleration to go from back in the field to contention in only 100m and put Xtension away cleverly on the line.

The pair pulled almost four lengths in front of third placed Let Me Handle It, who got home strongly from a similar position to Ambitious Dragon, but simply couldn't quicken with him.

The win was a triumph, a thrill and even a relief for Guyon, the boom young French rider who linked with Ambitious Dragon during his stint here and declared him high-class performer even when he was still rated in Class Three.

'I am very happy to be proved right today - I only said what I felt to be true but it is nice to have it confirmed,' he said. 'I'm 200 per cent sure this horse will prove himself as an international Group One horse. Horses from Hong Kong have showed they can win those types of races, so if he is the best horse here, then he can do that too. All dreams are open. He is so relaxed that I think 2,400m would not trouble him.'