He's getting into rarefied territory now, but victory for John Moore-trained Able Friend looks a formality in the Group Two Chairman's Trophy (1,600m) at Sha Tin on Tuesday.

Doubtless punters will throw their weight of money behind "Big Red" to make it back-to-back victories in the race and doubtless he will be at even shorter odds than the $13 favourite he was 12 months ago.

Able Friend (Joao Moreira) is now moving into that exalted sphere where winning ceases to be a story and only defeat can command real attention and he is also getting closer to that "Silent Witness territory" that Moore has been speaking about lately.

Presuming Able Friend wins, he will have won five Group races on end and that might not be unusual in some jurisdictions but it isn't frequent here.

Silent Witness put together 13 successive Group wins but, if we leave him out of considerations, the next best Group-race winning streak is five.

racing.scmp.com