Twelve months ago, Able One was supposed to be the pacesetting winner of the $20 million Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile but was taken out at the gates with an injury, and yesterday he was supposed to be the pacesetter with little chance of turning around some sub-par form but the veteran enlisted the help of another in Jeff Lloyd and gave John Moore a shock win.
A shock to the stable as much as the public, with the 66-1 chance staving off the unlucky visitor Cityscape by a neck with Moore's considerably better-fancied Xtension just failing to snatch second after some hard luck tales of his own in the richest 1,600m race on the planet.
'I think he's the most amazing horse I've trained - he's more setbacks than any three horses,' said Moore, who now needs only a Vase win to complete his set of Hong Kong Internationals.
'After all the stress fractures and the things he has gone through I guess it makes a statement about what a great team we have to send him out in such good condition today to win it but it is a surprise.
'I thought he would go out and make the pace as he did when he was a younger horse, but when Flying Blue went along pretty slick, Jeff was able to drop in behind that horse and let Flying Blue break the wind and that is how Able One loves to race now that he's an old horse.'