14 Jun 2008
Cambrige Stud-bred
Able One (Cape Cross x Gardenia) has captured another major event on the Hong Kong racing calendar in winning the Gr. 3 HK$2.3 million Premier Cup (1400m) at Sha Tin on Sunday night.
Paying better than $20 to win on the New Zealand TAB and the biggest upset of the day's racing,
Able One proved far too good leading throughout to score by two-and-three-quarter lengths on a good to yielding track from another New Zealand-bred, My Choice.
Able One is the winner of six races in Hong Kong and has amassed stakes of almost HK$9 million.The five-year-old gelding by Cape Cross, from the unraced Danehill mare Gardenia, was having his 20th start in Hong Kong for trainer John Moore, when he cruised for his sixth career win under the guidance of Zac Purton in the HK G.3 Premier Cup (1400m).
"Everyone knows how much ability he has but he's also had his share of problems," Moore said.
"The critical thing for him is being on the fence, because he often wants to run in. Sometimes, if he is outside the leader like he was in Japan [in the 2007 Yasuda Kinen] he simply races too hard."
The plan to go forward with
Able One was not Moore's idea, but was a plot hatched by Purton.
On the jockey's arrival in the paddock before the race, owner Cornel Li Fook-kwan was there earlier than Moore and Purton sold him on the idea in the trainer's absence.
"By the time I got there, Dr Li and Zac had decided they wanted to go forward and I was happy to support that," Moore said.
Able One is the second stakeswinner for Gardenia, the other being full brother Florilegium. Their yearling half-brother by Stravinsky was purchased by the Hong Kong Jockey Club at Karaka this January for NZ$325,000 and is destined for the Hong Kong International Sale in December.