SO it’s all about novice chases and handicap hurdles these days, but it was worth turning on Racing UK before mass last Sunday morning to see the international races from Hong Kong.

If you did, you got to see Aidan O’Brien’s first winner in the jurisdiction, and you got to remind yourself of how good Ryan Moore is.

Highland Reel ran out an impressive winner of the Vase for Aidan O’Brien, a first for the champion trainer in Hong Kong, and Moore was brilliant on him.

It looked like the rider was going to be allowed to have it all to himself up front until they swept around into the home straight, but that was before Tommy Berry rushed Harbour Master up the outside, passing most of the field and dropping onto the rail in front of Highland Reel.

Moore had to improvise, and Highland Reel was consequently wider than ideal around the home turn, but the Galileo colt picked up impressively to come clear of the top-class Flintshire inside the final 150 yards.

Highland Reel has been on the go now since early May. He has raced eight times this year now, twice in May and once in every other month except November. He has raced in Ireland twice, in France twice, in Britain once, in America once, in Australia once and now in Hong Kong once. That’s six difference countries, four different continents and two different hemispheres. They don’t make racehorses’ campaigns any more international than that.

This victory was testament to Highland Reel’s toughness, and to Aidan O’Brien’s ability to have him as fresh as he needed to be on his final run in such an arduous campaign.

Moore also excelled on Maurice in the Mile, a horse that the rider knows Maurice well, having ridden him to win the Mile Championship at Kyoto three weeks earlier for his principal Japanese trainer Noriyuki Hori.

These things can often get lost when you try to cross international frontiers, but Maurice is a top class colt.

Ryan Moore’s talent does not get lost when you cross national borders. Two winners and a second from three rides in Hong Kong’s international races mean that he will continue to be the most sought-after jockey in the world.