As a head-on confrontation, the Able Friend-Luger matchup fizzed out at the 300-metre mark but the wow factor was back for Able Friend even if the Royal Ascot date is still up in the air.

The Champions Mile billing as a match between the world's joint top-rated horse and a Derby winner dissolved when Zac Purton felt something wasn't right with Luger and eased him down, leaving Able Friend to make the Group One look like a Tuesday morning barrier trial.

Neither trainer John Moore nor Able Friend's owner Dr Cornel Li Fook-kwan were giving much away on the next move but Li did nod to his highest priority with the gelding - his well-being.

"I hope he will keep doing this. He's Hong Kong's horse now, not mine any more," he said. "As John has said, we will wait to see how Able Friend pulls up before we decide about Royal Ascot."

Moore said that conversation would not be this week as he will be out of the country.

"I'll give it four or five days and when I come back, Dr Li and I will sit down and talk about the Queen Anne Stakes," Moore said. "All the logistics - the flight, the stabling, where he would gallop - that is all worked out already. It just needs a decision."

Joao Moreira rode five winners but the Magic Man was totally in awe of Able Friend, throttling back hard on him to win by only just over a length when he had so much more to give.

"There was heaps more under the bonnet. I have found every jockey's dream, to ride one of the best in the world and I am so grateful and I hope it isn't going to stop," said Moreira.

For Luger and John Size, the Champions Mile could not have been more of an anti-climax. Eased down, he was confirmed to have had a recurrence of the heart irregularity that started his Derby-winning season and will end it with a six-month ban.