Which races have been the best in the world on turf and on dirt over the past 12 months? Figures just out show that the UK’s Juddmonte International Stakes, in which Ghaiyyath got the better of Magical, Lord North and Kameko at York in August, tops the list on grass. But the best race on dirt? It wasn’t anything at the Breeders’ Cup, it wasn’t any of the Triple Crown races, and it didn’t take place at Saratoga, Santa Anita or any of the other leading U.S. racetracks. Indeed, it wasn’t even run in the United States.
Instead the honour goes, perhaps fittingly, to the richest horserace ever staged - the inaugural running of the $20 million Saudi Cup on the acclaimed King Abdulaziz track just outside Riyadh in February.
The stats, compiled from the TRC Global Rankings database, have the Riyadh contest (see video below), in which Maximum Security held off Midnight Bisou and Godolphin star Benbatl (who is arguably a better horse on dirt than turf), as the highest-rated of all the dirt races run around the world since October 1 last year.
The Kentucky Derby earlier this month, with Authentic toppling hot favourite Tiz The Law, comes in fourth, with last November’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, won by Vino Rosso from McKinzie and Higher Power, rated only fifth.
Runner-up to the Saudi Cup is the G1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga on August 1, which was won impressively by the Bob Baffert-trained Improbable from By My Standards and Tom’s D’Etat. And third is the highest-placed Breeders’ Cup race, the Sprint, in which Mitole outpointed Shancelot and Whitmore.
THE TOP SIX DIRT RACES
The figures are based on the average Racing Post Rating for the first three finishers in every contest. While Vino Rosso (128) and Mitole (127) were awarded higher individual marks than Maximum Security and Improbable for their victories (they were both rated at 125), their races didn’t have the overall strength in depth of the Saudi Cup or the Whitney. (Authentic was assessed at 123 for his triumph at Churchill Downs.)
Indeed, the Saudi Cup’s strength in depth was even more pronounced if you consider the leading finishers out of the places. The fourth, Mucho Gusto, the Pegasus winner a month earlier, recorded an RPR of 119 for his Riyadh effort, and another fine American performer, Tacitus, was fifth on 116. Behind them the next three numbers were 114, 109 and 108. Compare that with the BC Classic’s figures from fourth to eighth: 104, 98, 97, 97, 94.
Of course, Maximum Security’s win at Riyadh is still the subject of an ongoing investigation because of doping charges faced by his then trainer, Jason Servis, along with 27 others involving prior races in the U.S. There is no suggestion that Maximum Security benefited from any performance-enhancing boost in Riyadh, where drug regulation is among the strictest in the world. Whatever the result of that investigation, it will not alter the performance levels displayed by the leading finishers that day. Nor does Maximum Security’s lacklustre effort when runner-up at a respectful distance behind the increasingly impressive Improbable in the Awesome Again at Santa Anita yesterday have any bearing on his Saudi Cup performance.
RPRs, like most ratings systems, tend to judge turf form as slightly superior to that shown on dirt, and indeed the Saudi Cup is ranked the joint seventh-best race worldwide in the new TRC-generated list, behind the top six turf races below.
THE TOP SIX TURF RACES
Tied with the Saudi Cup in seventh are the Longines Hong Kong Sprint, won by Beat The Clock at Sha Tin last December, and the St James’s Palace Stakes, won by Palace Pier at Royal Ascot in June.