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Two-way tie
The Dubai World Cup winner Laurel River and the Epsom Derby hero City Of Tory were awarded honours as the World’s Best Racehorses of 2024, both horses allocated a mark of 128.
It is the first time since 2009 that the winner of the Epsom Derby, and in his three-year-old year, has topped the table, although the top-rated performance for the son of Justify did not come in the Classic - by Alan Porter
FEDERICO TESIO, that most famous of all thoroughbred breeders, is often quoted as saying, “The thoroughbred exists because its selection has depended, not on experts, technicians or zoologists, but on a piece of wood: the winning post of the Epsom Derby. If you base your criteria on anything else, you will get something else, not the thoroughbred.”.
In fact, while the sentiment might be Tesio’s, it was actually recorded by his partner, the Marchese Mario Inisa della Rocchetta.
Either way, the concept doesn’t seem to have exerted much impact on the collective minds of the compilers of the World’s Best Racehorse ratings as, until this year, the most recent Epsom Derby to earn that distinction was Sea The Stars in 2009.
The rankings this time, though, see last year’s Epsom Derby victor City Of Troy share the title of World’s Best Racehorse with Dubai World Cup victor Laurel River.
The duo shared a rating of 128, some way below superstars Equinox (135) and Flightline (140) from the last two years, and equal with Crystal Ocean, Enable and Waldgeist – who owned joint billing top billing in 2019 – as the co-lowest rated champion overall champions.
If we look at ratings over the previous ten years for three-year-olds alone, though, City Of Troy is cast in a far more favourable light – he is equal with last year’s leader Ace Impact and above the likes of Equinox (as a three-year-old), Adayar, St. Mark’s Basilica, Authentic, Sottsass, Roaring Lion, Australia, Kingsman and The Grey Gatsby.
Perhaps as a reflection of how Tesio’s statement has dated, City Of Troy, the champion European two-year-old of 2023, didn’t actually earn his highest 2024 rating for his impressive Derby triumph – his high ranking win came for his Juddmonte International (G1) victory when he was a length to the good of the formidable older horse Calandagan.
Between those successes came a less eye-catching win in the Eclipse Stakes (G1) when he might have been ill-suited by the soft ground.
City Of Troy is from the remarkable second crop of the undefeated Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy), whose progeny in that crop also including the Eclipse Award-winning champion two-year-old filly Just FYI, the European champion twoyear-old filly Opera Singer, Ramatuelle, the champion two-year-old filly in France and spectacular conqueror of older males this year in the Prix de la Forêt (G1), and Hard To Justify, who took the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).
Whether the Justify/Galileo cross can match the achievements of its Coolmore predecessor, the cross of Galileo with Danehill mares, remains to be seen
The preponderance of his best runners so far have been Turf performers, but that in part reflects the aptitude of a high proportion of the mares bred to him.
He has already been represented on the Dirt by not only Just FYI, but also the Grade 1 scorer Arabian Lion, and the other graded scorers Verifying, Just Cindy, Champions Dream and Elwood Blues.
For good measure, Justify was also champion first-season sire in Australia.
City Of Troy is out of the Group 1-winning Together Forever, a sister to the Epsom Oaks heroine Forever Together, and a half-sister to another Group 1 winner in Lord Shanakill.
Together Forever is a daughter of Galileo, and City Of Troy is one of seven stakes winners by Justify out of a Galileo mare, and he already has Opera Singer out of a mare by Sadler’s Wells.
Whether this developing Justify/Galileo cross can match the achievements of its Coolmore predecessor, the cross of Galileo with Danehill mares, remains to be seen, but it’s made a promising start to say the very least.
River: a bit of an enigma
Laurel River, the top older horse and top Dirt runner, achieved his rating with an astonishing eight and a half length win over Ushba Tesoror and Senor Buscador in the Dubai World Cup (G1).
The horse is a little bit of a mystery as he didn’t run again in 2024 after the World Cup, which was his first try beyond a mile, and the then six-year-old, who was making only his tenth start in the Group 1 Dubai headline race, had previously been campaigned as a sprinter/miler, a role in which he had won the 7f Pat O’Brien Stakes (G2).
That was back in August 2022, and the bay wasn’t seen in action again until his brief three-race Dubai winter campaign. Since the rankings were announced, he reappeared in the mile Firebreak Stakes (G3) missing by a short head, tiring late after setting fast early fractions.
Laurel River is the first horse trained in the UAE to top the rankings, and it’s noticeable the top ten horses this year were based in eight different countries – Ireland, UAE, Australia, France, Japan, the US, Hong Kong and Britain – and were foaled in the US, Ireland, Germany and Japan, with Britain and France also getting into the act if we drop just a point from the top ten.
The recognition of Laurel River as a joint-World Champion marks another milestone in the remarkable stud career of his sire Into Mischief.
A son of Harlan’s Holiday – by the Storm Cat stallion Harlan – Into Mischief stood as low as $7,500 in his second and third years at stud, but has risen to become the dominant US stallion of his era.
Last year marked his sixth consecutive year as leading sire in the US, by far the highest total achieved by a stallion in the 21st century, and a number exceeded in the previous century only by the eight titles earned by Bold Ruler.
For good measure, Into Mischief has also earned honours as the leading US sire of two-year-olds six times.
Laurel River was bred by Juddmonte and is bred on the same cross of Into Mischief over an Empire Maker mare that produced Juddmonte’s Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mandaloun and six other stakes winners.
Calm Water, the dam of Laurel River, is a sister to the three-time Grade 1 winner Emollient, the dam of the Group winner Raclette and stakes winner Ardent.
The third dam Glia, a daughter of A.P. Indy, was a black-type winner in France and the US. She is out of Machiavellian’s sister Coup De Genie, going back to Northern Dancer’s half-sister Raise The Standard.
Into Mischief is beginning to make an impact in the second generation and, via his son Goldencents, he is grandsire of the 2024 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mystick Dan (rated 120 on the World Rankings).
Kentucky Derby one-two
The horse that finished just a nose behind Mystik Dan at Churchill Downs, Sierra Leone, ended the year as joint top Dirt three-year-old, and was also the champion three-year-old colt in the US.
He’d been an enigma most of the year, a deep closer who usually failed to keep straight in the stretch and that was despite several changes of equipment, but in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) he found an ideal set up, sitting as far as 12l off a pace that would have not been out of place in a 6f sprint, before rallying to score by a length and a half.
Sierra Leone’s sire Gun Runner secured an award as US Horse of the Year after his victory in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1). He appears to be the potential heir to Into Mischief as the dominant sire of US Dirt performers, and, indeed, he was second to that horse on the 2024 North American Leading Sires’ table. He had a remarkable first crop with 18 stakes winners, 12 graded, including the champion two-year-old filly Echo Zulu and the Preakness Stakes (G1) scorer Early Voting.
Sierra Leone is from his third crop, and overall, he now has 37 stakes winners from his first four crops, 25 graded winners, ten Grade 1 winners from his first four crops. Alongside him at the top of the Dirt three - year-old rankings is Fierceness.
Last year’s champion two-year-old colt, he finished an heroic second to Sierra Leone in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) after closely attending that suicidal early pace.
Fierceness did fail to fire in the Kentucky Derby (G1), but he took the Florida Derby (G1) by over 13l, the Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) by a length over Sierra Leone and the Travers Stakes (G1) with Sierra Leone back in third and, although Sierra Leone did receive the year-end Eclipse Award, it’s our feeling that Fierceness is the more talented of the two.
Fortunately, we’ll have a chance to find out as both are set to remain in training for 2025.
Fierceness is from the second crop of City Of Light, a talented son of Quality Road, who was best at around a mile, and is out of a half-sister to the Wood Memorial Stakes (G1) winner and sire Outwork.
Before leaving the US three-year-old Classic Dirt colts we’ll also mention that they were all upstaged in the Kentucky Derby (G1) by the excellent Japanese-trained and bred Forever Young (121).
Undefeated in five races, including in the Saudi Derby (G3) and UAE Derby (G2), he missed victory under the Twin Spires by just a pair of noses and might well have prevailed had he not bumped with Sierra Leone, who wandered under pressure.
He went on to win the Japan Dirt Classic, take third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) beaten two and three-quarters of a length, and then ended the year with a win in the Tokyo Diashoten (G1).
He’s by Deep Impact’s son Real Steel, a brother to the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) winner Loves Only You, and out of the US graded scorer Forever Darling (Congrats).
By one of those strange coincidences that appear in the racing game from time to time, Forever Darling is a three-quarters sister to the Alcibiades Stakes (G1) winner Heavenly Love, dam of none other than Sierra Leone!
Anna: the world’s best Dirt female
Second, by a fast-diminishing head in Fierceness’s Travers Stakes (G1) and ahead of Sierra Leone, was the excellent filly Thorpedo Anna.
That was her only loss in a seven-race campaign, six in Grade 1 events, her victories including the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1).
Her efforts resulted in recognition for Thorpedo Anna as the world’s best Dirt female, that title awarded a few days before her coronation as US Horse of the Year.
Thorpedo Anna, is by the deceased Fast Anna, a sprinting son of Medaglia D’Oro, who is about to start the 2025 breeding season at the age of 26-years-old.
Medaglia D’Oro is also sire of Rachel Alexandra, the only other three-year-old filly to take Horse of the Year crown.
Via Sistina: going from strength to strength
A female also usurped the males as best older Turf horse on the World’s Best Racehorse Rankings – the six-year-old Irishbred mare Via Sistina.
She was an accomplished runner in Europe winning the Pretty Polly Stakes (G1) and two other Group races, and taking second behind King Of Steel in the Champion Stakes (G1), but she has flourished since transferring to Australia.
She took five of seven southernhemisphere starts in 2024 winning the ATC Ranvet Stakes (G1), the ATC Winx Stakes (G1), the VRC Turnbull Stakes (G1), the W.S. Cox Plate (G1) in a remarkable 8l rout, and the VRC Mackinnon Stakes (G1), those races ranging from 7f to 1m2f.
The imponderable here is whether Via Sistina has really improved 10 points from 2023 to 2024?
Or was she in fact simply maintaining the form of her excellent second to King Of Steel in 2023 and has more than enough class to handle the Australia shorter middle-distance contingent?
Perhaps the truth lies between the two. Whatever is the reason, her mark of 127 requires us to believe that she would have decisively handled City Of Troy and Laurel River at weight for sex.
Via Sistina is by the Danehill stallion Fastnet Rock, a champion sprinter, multiple champion sire and a champion broodmare sire in Australia.
Her dam Nigh is a Galileo half-sister to the brilliant sprinter Kingsgate Native, and this is a reverse of the Galileo/Danehill cross.
This specific version has produced 30 stakes winners from 160 starters (19 per cent), 11 of them Group or Grade 1.
Three-way tie for the Sprinters
Looking at the leaders in different divisions and starting with the sprinters the top spot was filled by three different horses –Cogburn, I Wish I Win and Ka Ying Rising, who are all rated 121 (the lowest top rating for a sprinter since 2006).
The US-trained Cogburn had been a useful Dirt sprinter, but he made a major step forward after switching to Turf in the middle of 2023.
From then on he won six of eight starts, all in stakes races, including when taking the five and a half furlong Jaipur Stakes (G1) in a world-record 59.80sec.
He is by Not This Time (Giant’s Causeway), a horse who has quickly made his way to a position among North America’s top sires. Not This Time, who only raced a two, and who was beaten inches for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), is particularly notable as an extremely versatile stallion, both in terms of surface and distance, and this year he’s also represented on the World’s Best Racehorse Rankings by Next, a rare North American runner to be represented in the Extended distance category.
Cogburn is out of a mare by a son of Saint Ballado, a sister to the champion Glorious Song, the dam of Giant’s Causeway’s broodmare sire Rahy.
I Wish I Win and Ka Ying Rising were both born in New Zealand, a region that has historically been more associated with stamina, unlike its fellow antipodean county across the Tasman Sea.
A joint-champion older male in Australia, I Wish I Win won the ATC T. J. Smith Stakes (G1) and BRC Kingsford Smith Cup (G1) at the highest level.
In line with his New Zealand heritage, I Wish I Win does actually have plenty of stamina in his pedigree.
His sire Savabeel was best at 1m2f and twice won Grade 1 events over the distance, and he’s a half-brother to Another Dollar, a Group-winning and Group 1-placed runner, who won at up to 1m3f.
He’s also closely related to Strike The Stars, a Group race winner by Savabeel who won at up to two miles. A champion sire in New Zealand nine times, Savaebeel is by Zabeel, a son of Sir Tristram, and his third dam is by that same seminal influence.
By way of balance, I Wish I Win’s dam is a sprinter by speed influence Pins and out of the precocious sprinter/miler Starcent.
Ka Ying Rising has spent his entire career in Hong Kong and has won 10 of 12 starts (the JKJC Centernary Sprint (G1) in 2025) and defeated international challengers in the Hong Kong Sprint (G1).
He is by Shamexpress from a male-line that goes back via O’Reilly and Last Tycoon to El Gran Senor’s brother Try My Best, and out of a mare by the Street Cry horse Per Incanto.
The top sprint female on 119 was Imperatriz. Foaled in Australia, she’s been a Horse of the Year, a champion three-yearold, twice a champion sprinter in New Zealand and a champion older mare and a champion sprinter in Australia.
She has won 10 Group 1 races and is by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), a champion Australian sire for each of the last three years, and out of a Shamardal mare.
Charyn leads the Mile division
The Mile category was topped by Charyn on 124, and although that was the lowest figure for a leader in this division the last 20 years, it was sufficient to make him the top European older horse on these rankings.
A son of Dark Angel (another from the Try My Best line, this time via Acclamation), Charyn improved considerably from three to four with his 2024 victories including the Sandown Mile (G2), the Queen Anne Stakes (G1), the Prix Jacques Le Marois (G1) and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1).
A brother to the Group winner Wings Of War, Charyn is out of the stakes-placed Futoon, and is a major recruit to the French stallion ranks for 2025.
The leading Dirt miler and three-year-old miler was Fierceness, and the top female in that category was Thorpedeo Anna, both already mentioned.
Girls led by Ramatuelle and Porta Fortuna
The top Turf female milers tied on 117 were the three-year-olds Porta Fortuna and Ramatuelle.
After going down by a neck to Elmalka in the 1,000 Guineas (G1), Porta Fortuna ran up a sequence with wins in the Coronation Stakes (G1), the Falmouth Stakes (G1) and the Matron Stakes (G1).
The historically low ratings continued with the 126 awarded to the top horse in middle-distance category Goliath
She is a daughter of the Scat Daddy horse Caravaggio, who is now in Japan, out of a Holy Roman Emperor mare who is a sister to the Australian Group race winner Numerian. She’s from a branch of the Aga Khan family that goes back to Masakaand was represented by the leading Extended distance three-year-old Milan, who is out of a half-sister to Porta Fortuna’s third dam.
Ramatuelle – last season’s top French two-year-old – ran third in the 1,000 Guineas (G1) and the Coronation Stakes (G1) before dropping back to 7f and comprehensively outpointing a field that included older males in the Prix de la Forêt (G1).
From the same Justify crop as City Of Troy, she is the first foal of Raven’s Lady, a winner of the Goldene Peitsche (G2) in Germany and the Summer Stakes (G3) in England.
From the same Justify crop as City Of Troy, she is the first foal of Raven’s Lady, a winner of the Goldene Peitsche (G2) in Germany and the Summer Stakes (G3) in England.
On the same mark the top older Turf females in this division were the Australian duo Bella Nipotina and Fangirl.
Bella Nipotina was really more of a sprinter and won the valuable The Everest and the Doombend Ten Thousand at 6f, although she did stretch out to 7f to capture the Tatt’s RC Tattersall’s Tiara (G1).
She’s by Street Cry’s son Pride Of Dubai and out of a mare by Star Witness.
Fangirl won a Group 2, but was also a good second against males in the ATC Chipping Nortonn Stakes (G1).
By the now deceased More Than Ready son Sebring, Fangirl is out of the stakes -winning Encosta De Lago mare, Little Surfer Girl.
Friendly Soul on 116 heads the Intermediate
We’ve already discussed City Of Troy, Laurel River and Via Sistina, the top Turf and Dirt horse and the top female Turf runner in the Intermediate category on Turf and Dirt, as well as Sierra Leone and Fierceness, who were the top Dirt threeyear-olds.
We have to got all the way down to 116 to find the top three-year-old filly, the Prix de l’Opera (G1) heroine Friendly Soul.
She’s by Kingman out of the Group winner In Clover (Inchinor), the dam of six other stakes winners, including the Group 1 winners Call The Wind, With You and We Are, and granddam of another scorer at the highest level in Kelina.
Gelding Goliath heads up the middle-distance division
The historically low ratings continued with the 126 awarded to the top horse in middledistance category Goliath, who earned his mark with a two and a half length victory over subsequent Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) heroine Bluestocking in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1).
This race was run at a breakneck pace, which effectively eliminated Auguste Rodin and Rebel’s Romance from contention, but brought out the best in Goliath, who unveiled form considerably in advance of anything he’d previously shown.
A gelding, and so not eligible for the Arc, Goliath then added the Prix du Conseil de Paris (G2) and a sixth place finish in the Japan Cup (G1) to his resume.
The German-bred Goliath is by the late Adlerflug, previously best-known as the sire of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) victor Torquator Tasso.
Adlerflug was by In the Wings, a son of Sadler’s Wells, and his granddam Alya was a sister to the granddam of Sadler’s Wells’ great son Galileo meaning that Adlerflug was bred on similar lines to that horse.
Goliath is out of the stakes-winning Sharmardal mare Gouache and his second dam, the stakes winner Guantana, is out of Guadalupe, who was a joint-top three-yearold filly in Germany.
One point below Goliath was his Japan Cup (G1) conqueror Do Deuce, who was a champion two-year-old colt in Japan in 2021, and earned Horse of the Year honours in the country for 2024.
He’s bred on a formula that has been central to the rise in prominence of Japanese bloodstock – the cross of a Sunday Silence-line sire, here Heart’s Cry, out of an imported mare who was a top-class racehorse.
In this instance it is Dust And Diamonds, a multiple graded stakes winner second in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1).
Bluestocking goes Long
Bluestocking, the top female in the Long category, ended her career on high-note with successive victories in the Prix Vermeille (G1) and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1).
She is by Camelot out of the Group 1winning Emulous, a Dansili mare whose sister Daring Diva is the granddam of Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mandaloun.
She has an interesting pedigree pattern as Camelot’s dam Tarfah is a Mr. Prospector/ Danehill cross, and Emulous is a Danehill/ Mr. Prospector cross.
Aventure, winner of the Prix de Pomone (G2) and Prix de Royaumont (G3) and runner-up to Bluestocking in both the Prix Vemeille (G1) and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1), was the top three-year-old filly in this division on 120.
She’s by Sea The Stars, and is a half-sister to the Vermeille winner Left Hand. Her dam, the Group-winning Balladeuse (Singspiel), is a half-sister to Plumania, heroine of the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (G1), and to the dam of Double Major, the champion three year-old stayer in France in 2023.
Kyprios: the star stayer
Among the stayers, Kyprios was a more historically representative top-weight on 122, three points below the benchmark established by Stradivarius in 2020, and two points lower then when Kyprios himself headed the ratings in 2022, but equal or higher to the leader in eight of the last 20 years.
The six-year-old went seven for seven, all in black-type events, including the Ascot Gold Cup (G1), the Goodwood Cup (G1), the Irish St. Leger (G1) and the Prix du Cadran (G1).
By Galileo out of the Danehill mare Polished Gem, Kyprios is a sister to Search For A Song, multiple times Europe’s top staying mare, and a three-quarters brother to the Group 1 winner Free Eagle.
The rest of the world
The highest-rated horse foaled outside of the US, Europe, Japan, Australia or New Zealand is Subsanador (118), who was bred in Argentina where he was champion two-year-old colt.
He has transfered to the US, and racing in California, the son of the Distorted Humor stallion Fortify won the California Crown (G1) for Wathnan Racing.
Chile’s Kay Army (117) is undefeated in 10 starts, six Grade 1, in his native country, and has also migrated to the US. He’s by the Chilean-bred Scat Daddy son Katmai.
On the same mark are the South African pair, See It Again and Main Defender.
See It Again, who is by the Juddmonte International (G1) winner Twice Over and a three-quarters brother to Twice Over’s South African Champion Do It Again, won the Cape Derby (G1) and Daily News 2,000 (G1), while Main Defender, a son of the Irish champion two-year-old colt Pathfork, took the Horse Chestnut Stakes (G1).
At 116 comes Brazil’s Opazo, whose victories included the Grande Premio Jockey de Sao Paulo (G1).
He is by Uncle Mo’s son Rally Cry out of the Brazilian stakes winner by Macho Uno.
On 115, Peru is represented by Don Feres, the champion Peruvian Turf Horse, and by Singe The Turf (Galileo), a brother to Heliostatic, himself a standout sire in South America, and Soldier Of Fortune.
