James Willoughby picks out the jockey, trainer, owner and sire who made the biggest impact on the TRC Global Rankings in the week that ended on Sunday.
TRC JOCKEY OF THE WEEK
Only 15 Group or Graded races which count towards the standings were run in the last week. Still, two jockeys had doubles – and both were already in the world top ten.
The hyper-consistent Joel Rosario (+2pts due to rounding, stays #9) scored a notable G1 double in the G1 Hollywood Derby and G1 Matriarch Stakes, both at Del Mar. But our algorithm is much less confident in the true standing of Japan-based Italian MIRCO DEMURO (+7pts, #4 from #6) after he won the G1 Champions Cup at Chukyo and G3 Challenge Cup at Hanshin.
While Rosario’s large sample of rides and stable performance means the rankings see his position within the hierarchy as stable, Demuro has had half the number of rides and the TRC algorithm seeks to raise his ranking to separate him appropriately from other riders in his colony not named Christophe Lemaire.
This is a great opportunity to check out the head-to-head records of the top ten jockeys in Japan and the USA against their peers riding in those countries. The tables below count the number of times each jockey has ridden in the same Group/Graded race as another in the top ten over the past 12 months. The W column indicates when a jockey has finished ahead and the L column shows when he has finished behind.
So Christophe Lemaire, for example, has 278 head-to-heads against the others in the first table - many of them will be in the same race - and has come out on top 64 percent of the time. The tables also include each rider's current index points:
TRC OWNER OF THE WEEK
There were 15 different successful owners this week, so the award goes to PETER BRANT (+4pts, #54 from #72) on countback, after his Raging Bull won the G1 Hollywood Derby and he gained an additional third with Quidura in the G1 Matriarch, also at Del Mar.
It is great to see Brant’s green colours once again back in the winner’s enclosure regularly after top-flight races. He’s had a staggering nine G1 wins in 2018, thanks to the brilliant Sistercharlie (4), Raging Bull (3), Fog Of War and Quidura (both 1). He was not ranked at all until entering the standings at #392 on July 22, since when he has made rapid progress, reaching the top 200 on August 12, the top 100 on September 16 and his highest-ever spot this week.
TRC TRAINER OF THE WEEK
There is no doubt whatsoever about this one. The brilliant CHAD BROWN (+4pts, #3 from #4) passes Bob Baffert (no change, #4 from #3) to take over as #1 U.S. trainer after a hat-trick of G1 wins last week. At Del Mar, he won the Matriarch with Uni and the Hollywood Derby with Raging Bull, while at Aqueduct he annexed the G1 Cigar Mile with Patternrecognition. Only world #1 Aidan O’Brien (53) has had more Group/Graded wins this year than Brown (46).
The world’s top five trainers by our figures – O’Brien, Charlie Appleby, Brown, Baffert and John Gosden – are separated by only 20 points, while there are only eight points between the top four.
TRC SIRE OF THE WEEK
He’s done it again! We have written a lot about I AM INVINCIBLE (+1pt, #4 from #5) of late. Our #1 sire with Modal.Country (country of most runners) ‘Australia’, the Yarraman Park inmate heads the weekly table again, producing G1 winner Voodoo Lad in the Winterbottom Stakes at Ascot in Perth and filling the places in the G3 George Moore at Doomben with Most Important (second) and Victorem (third).
Not surprisingly, I Am Invincible has a fine head-to-head record against the other top stallions in his territory. He is 207-154 (57%) against the other members of the top ten during 2018. In that period, he has produced 24 Group winners – fifth in the world in this category to #2 Galileo (39), #1 Dubawi (37), #6 Deep Impact (30) and #14 Fastnet Rock (27). Compared with the last named – a top-notch producer himself – I Am Invincible has a higher strike rate (15% to 12%), a better head-to-head record (38-29-1) and a higher time-decayed mean Racing Post Rating score (87.96 to 86.16).
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.