IT was show time last Friday week in Hong Kong when the Australian-bred Able Friend was crowned Horse of the Year. The son of Shamardal also scooped the trophies for champion miler and the most popular horse.

The latter is an award that attracted 129,728 votes from the public, and 59% of them were for the John Moore-trained star who most recently ran at Royal Ascot. In the 2014/15 season in Hong Kong he racked up four Group 1 wins and is the first horse trained there to top the world rankings. His wins at the highest level this year were gained in the Hong Kong Mile, the Stewards’ Cup, the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup and the Champions Mile.