Top Milers Preparing for Queen Anne Stakes
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The first race of this year's Royal Ascot meeting will feature the Richard Hannon-trained pair of Night of Thunder and Toormore, who will be tested against the world's best milers in the Queen Anne Stakes (Eng-I).
The Royal meet runs from Tuesday, June 16 through Saturday, June 20.
The stable companions claimed an impressive one-two finish in the Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes (Eng-I) at Newbury over the weekend, with Night of Thunder coming out on top.
The pair will meet Hong Kong star Able Friend, currently the world's co-top-rated racehorse, who has been confirmed as a runner alongside Freddy Head's Dubai Turf (UAE-I) winner Solow.
John Moore's Able Friend has already secured legendary status in Hong Kong after he breezed to victory in the May 3 Champions Mile (HK-I) at Sha Tin earlier this month and Hannon knows his pair will have their work cut out if he is to continue his run of success at Royal Ascot this year.
"Solow looked awesome when destroying a top-class field in the Dubai Turf at Meydan, while Able Friend is a superstar in Hong Kong and has shown that he is virtually unbeatable at Sha Tin," Hannon said on his website.
"We have improved the quality of our squad these last few years, and the chance to show just how far we have come by beating the top horses from abroad is what really excites me.
"Night of Thunder will probably have to improve to beat Solow and Able Friend at Ascot, but I think he is seven pounds better on soft ground, so I hope the (umbrellas) are up for the start of the Royal meeting.
"Night of Thunder is the only horse to have taken the scalp of Kingman, and in my eyes he beat him fair and square in last year's Two Thousand Guineas (Eng-I). He is such a straightforward horse, so uncomplicated and a real gentleman, while Toormore, like Night of Thunder, will come on a lot for this first race."
Able Friend was in imperious form when destroying the field under a near motionless Joao Moreira at Sha Tin and he will arrive in Great Britain 10 days before his Royal Ascot run.
The Champions Mile stretched his winning streak to six, but Moore isn't getting carried away ahead of perhaps his toughest test to date.
"I'm going in very open minded. We are taking on the cream of the crop on the world stage," Moore told the South China Morning Post about the trip. "This is our intention, to take on the very best, but we aren't going in thinking the result is a foregone conclusion."
The opening day of Royal Ascot features two other group I races: the King's Stand Stakes and the St. James's Palace Stakes.