With Royal Ascot staging no less than 19 of the 36 Group or Graded races run around the world last week, it’s little wonder that the bulk of this week’s most significant moves in the TRC Global Rankings came as a result of events at the great Berkshire festival.
The top four Britain-based jockeys in the standings accounted for 13 Royal Ascot wins, distributed in line with their rankings:
Among these four, Ryan Moore picked up 6pts, Frankie Dettori 5pts, William Buick 11pts and James Doyle 6pts. Buick earned the most because he had the highest-quality wins and places given the size of his book of rides - half of his 14 rides were placed and he had a G1 win (King’s Stand Stakes, Blue Point) and two G2 wins.
Ryan Moore’s five Royal Ascot Group-race wins included Merchant Navy in the G1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes over six furlongs. This cements the great rider’s #1 status for many more weeks to come, as he now has a 59pt lead over the current joint world #2s, American ace Mike Smith and Italian Mirco Demuro, who rides in Japan.
Moore has now spent 144 of 250 weeks as the TRC #1 rider. Any speculation you may have heard on TV broadcasts during Ascot - or anywhere else at any other time - as to who is the ‘best jockey in the world’ is purely a subjective matter, but there is no doubt whatsoever as to who is the most successful, as our impartial, objective figures prove.
Four of the top five British- and Irish-based trainers dominated the Royal Ascot Group-race win table, with 13 of the 19 Group races between them:
Sir Michael Stoute - the winner of more Royal Ascot Group races than any trainer in history - sent out four winners and three thirds from nine runners. This success rate and efficiency earned him 13pts and the title of biggest climber of the week in Europe. Aidan O’Brien (4pts), John Gosden (9pts) and Charlie Appleby (6pts) also made significant gains.
World #1 O’Brien picked up four Royal Ascot Group races and also earned another 11 places from a team of 40 runners in the races that count. The Ballydoyle legend has headed the trainer rankings 109 times out of 250. Australian handler Chris Waller - this week’s #7 overall - is second with 83.
The 19 Royal Ascot Group races were won by 16 different sires. Only #1 Galileo, #11 Sea The Stars and #53 Shamardal won more than one of them. All three were identified as sires with a positive ‘Ascot Factor’ in an analysis we carried out before the meeting, with Shamardal having the highest overall rating in this metric.
Galileo gained 2pts, Sea The Stars 7pts, Shamardal 6ps, Frankel 4pts, but Dubawi lost 1pt. Dubawi’s Old Persian won the G2 King Edward VII Stakes and his Wild Illusion ran second in the G2 Ribblesdale Stakes, but all his other runners finished no better than sixth - the higher the ranking, the greater the expected performance in TRC Global Rankings.
Frankel had three winners at the meeting overall, more than any other sire, but only one of them was a Group winner (Without Parole in the G1 St James’s Palace Stakes).
Invincible Spirit, who now stands at the Irish National Stud, was responsible for first and third in the G1 Commonwealth Cup with Eqtidaar and Emblazoned. Formerly world #5 for 15 weeks, he moves to #32 from #42 this week. Notably, his brilliant son, first-season sire Kingman, earned his first Royal Ascot winner when Calyx won the G2 Coventry Stakes.
In Hong Kong meanwhile, Tony Cruz won the G3 Premier Plate and the G3 Premier Cup at Sha Tin and is now our highest-ranked trainer in the Chinese special administrative region, besting stalwarts John Size and the legendary John Moore on the back of a good recent run.
Also in Hong Kong, new world #13 jockey Zac Purton’s Group-race form continues to mirror his exploits in all races that constitute the local jockeys’ premiership there. He leads that particular title race from Joao Moreira and is now just 2pts behind the world #12 in TRCGlobal Rankings. Purton was aboard the two G3 Tony Cruz-trained winners.
Biggest mover of the week was top-notch Peruvian pilot Martin Chuan, who picked up two G1s at Monterrico. The rarity value of these wins gains Chuan 18pts and a move from #143 to #84. He is now the highest-ranked rider to have Peru as his modal country since our rankings began four years ago.
The highest Racing Post Rating of the week in Group or Graded races belongs to Poet's Word, who earned 125 for winning the G1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot. The Sir Michael Stoute-trained colt is a son of #21 Poet's Voice, the sadly deceased Godolphin stallion we have featured several times recently.
Click here for a list of all last week’s biggest TRC Global Rankings points gainers.
Click here for a list of all the week’s Group and Graded winners.