Able Friend On Road To Recovery

Hong Kong superstar Able Friend (Aus) (Shamardal) is taking the next stage of his recuperation from a leg injury in his country of birth Australia. The 6-year-old was last seen finishing third to Japanese Horse Of The Year Maurice (Jpn) (Screen Hero {Jpn}) in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Mile in December during which he sustained a tendon injury. Trainer John Moore is hoping the four time Group 1 winner can recover to supply him with an elusive first top level success in Australia and has set a tentative target of Melbourne's Spring Carnival to work back from. Moore's son and assistant, George told racing.com, “He arrived [in Australia] a couple of days ago. Our vet Ben Mason, who used to work for us in Hong Kong, is going to look after him over here. We're going to do an MRI on his leg so we can do a comparison in three months. We're just going to give him a break, hopefully he'll heal himself.” Reflecting on how the injury occurred Moore said, “The horse did it in the big race on international day, he was hanging on the last 200m when he was asked to pick up. He didn't pick up like he usually does. But he's a quiet horse, so if we don't put too much pressure on that area, I think he'll heal up. John Moore has been Hong Kong's leading trainer on six occasions and has won numerous Group 1 races in different countries, with one omission; his native country. “Dad's Australian, he wants to fill that dream of getting one over here so hopefully he can do it with Able Friend,” added Moore. John Moore however was a bit more cautious about future plans for Able Friend as he told South China Morning Post, “It's going to be a day-by-day thing, Mother Nature has to do her part first before we can think about racing the horse again. But I would hope that by June, he might be ready to put into some light work. We'd see how he handles that and, if he came through that stage ok, the next step would be to see if he can handle a racing preparation.”