Able Friend might be Hong Kong's highest-rated horse ever and has beaten all before him at home, but he has taken a back seat both in betting and for the title of Royal Ascot's story of the week in the lead-up to Tuesday's Queen Anne Stakes.

Watch: Meet the highest rated horse in the world, Hong Kong's Able Friend

Able Friend has won his last six races as an odds-on favourite at Sha Tin - his last five at $1.30 or less. But $3.25 was still available for Able Friend on Thursday, with local bookies installing France's Solow $2.50 favourite for the first race of the five-day carnival.

Even a favourable weather forecast and flawless preparation, culminating with a gallop Friday morning, has not swayed oddsmakers.

"There are plenty of international visitors who are telling us that Able Friend should be ahead of Solow in the Queen Anne market but betting is fundamentally a game of supply and demand, and to date, we've seen more cash for Solow than for Able Friend," said David Williams of British bookmaker Ladbrokes.

"There's always an element of punters underestimating the strength of the unknown. I suspect the money will come for Able Friend, but I still think Solow will start favourite on raceday."

And at Thursday's Royal Ascot press call, the presence of California Chrome's colourful owner Steve Coburn and trainer Art Sherman even meant the title of media darling went to another chestnut.

Still, Able Friend's travelling foreman George Moore, son of trainer John, has been in demand from those looking for insight into the near-17-hand, 1,300-pound galloper dubbed the "Beast from the East".

"My phone hasn't stopped ringing and he has had someone asking for his photo every hour. I think the horse is even starting to enjoy it - he certainly isn't camera-shy any more," said Moore, whose humble baseball cap was put in the shade by Coburn's trademark Stetson.

Moore said he and his father had settled on Newmarket's Cambridge polytrack for Able Friend's final blowout.

"It's an 1,800m long gallop, the first section is uphill and the last five furlongs is flat," said Moore. "A lot of visitors are using a watered gallop adjacent to Rowley Mile, and much of it is flat and distance-wise it is great, but it has some small undulating sections and we would rather a smooth surface."

One element of doubt was the possibility of a badly rain-affected track, something the five-year-old has never encountered. But Ascot's clerk of the course Chris Stickels predicted a good, or good to firm track. "We have thunderstorms forecast tomorrow [Friday], but we should get good drying conditions until raceday," he said.