William Hill Cox Plate invitee Highland Reel benefitted from a Ryan Moore masterclass to make all and provide trainer Aidan O’Brien with a fourth success in King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.

And a return to Moonee Valley in a bid to improve on last year’s third-placed effort behind Winx is one of a number of international options that will be considered by his owners at Coolmoore Stud.

Highland Reel was a true globetrotter through 2015 with starts in America, Australia and Hong Kong, and his two early runs this year came on foreign territories including his fourth in the Dubai Sheema Classic.

His return to the UK saw him lose out in a fantastic tussle with The Queen’s Dartmouth in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot, but he had that rival well in arrears on this occasion when winning as the heavily-backed favourite.

With no obvious front-runner in the seven-strong field, Moore flew the gates and Highland Reel never saw another rival as the pair stayed on strongly to beat the Derby fourth Wings Of Desire by a length and a quarter.

O’Brien said: “Ryan has given him a lovely ride and the horse has been progressing all of the time.

“He is an incredible horse and has travelled the world. He loves travelling and the great thing is he is getting better and better, which is amazing.

“He is developing physically and mentally, he is solid as a rock.

“He loves fast ground and while he ran a great race here on soft, it is fast ground that he really loves.”

As for future targets, the Ballydoyle master added: “He can go any place in the world now with Japan, Hong Kong, America and Australia all options. He is an amazing horse and we have the Breeders’ Cup Turf and the Cox Plate again to consider.”

Moore added: “He is a very good horse – he won in both America and Hong Kong last year, and he started this year in Dubai and things did not work out for him there.

“It is a marvellous achievement for Aidan to get him back in this shape to win this sort of race.

“He had a very tough campaign last year and is a very tough horse.

“He is a professional and hits the gates well. He has been to both Hong Kong and Australia and he knows how to race.

“The ground last time was against him and it was his first run of the campaign back in the UK and he just got tired. The ground is key to him and we saw what he was capable of in Hong Kong last year when he beat Flintshire on fast ground.”

Dartmouth, who stays the 2400 meters and further, was not ideally placed at the rear of the field and the Emirates Melbourne Cup possiblity stayed on for third place.

Highland Reel was not the only one of the ‘elite 11’ Cox Plate invitees to be in the winner’s enclosure on Saturday, with Roger Charlton’s Time Test making very heavy weather of landing cramped odds of 1/2 in the Group Two York Stakes.

The race should have been a penalty kick for Pat Smullen’s mount but he took a long while to overhaul Mondaliste to score by three-quarters of a length in the colours of Khalid Abduallah.

His racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe said: “He travelled well which was pleasing to see and while he was made to work, he was well on top at the finish.

“I think we'll have to come back here in three weeks for the Juddmonte International and have another go in a Group One.”