Yet another G1 win for Godolphin’s globetrotting gelding Rebel’s Romance – that’s nine now, not even including Qatar! – and the dual Breeders’ Cup hero has sneaked up another place in Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s Global Rankings.
After a resounding 3½-length victory in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Aqueduct (‘Belmont at the Big A’, naturally) on Saturday [Sept 27], the famously durable seven-year-old moves up to #6 (from #7, +54pt).
Frankly, it is no more than he deserves. Rebel’s Romance has now won 20 of his 29 career starts – among them nine G1s, plus two editions of the richly endowed Amir’s Trophy in Qatar – and, with more than £11 million (about $14.4m) in the bank, stands third on the all-time list of British prize-money earners behind Thunder Snow and Mishriff. He’s won ten out of 13 since 2024.
In Saturday’s race, Rebel’s Romance was totally dominant as the odds-on favorite, controlling the race after a strong early move under Frankie Dettori (#12 from #13, +20pt), enjoying another big-race win in the royal blues he wore in such a distinguished fashion for so many years.
All roads now lead back to the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar, where Rebel’s Romance will bid for a third success in the $5m contest on November 1.
“I’m delighted with Rebel’s Romance, who keeps putting his rivals to the sword,” commented trainer Charlie Appleby (stays at #2, +67pt). “It was a great ride from Frankie and it’s all systems go now towards the Breeders’ Cup.”
Mystik Dan (#54 from #155, +183pt) has bounced around the rankings in the period with some mixed efforts since last year’s Kentucky Derby success.
With jockey Francisco Arrieta substituting for the injured Brian Hernandez, he returned to the Churchill Downs winner’s circle for the fourth time with a gallant effort, produced between horses after meeting trouble in the $500,000 Lukas Classic.
“This horse just exudes class,” said trainer Ken McPeek. “He acts like an old professional.”
The Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile is beckoning – a race in which he is likely to face defending champ Full Serrano, beaten at odds-on by upcoming three-year-old Nevada Beach (enters at #104) after a front-end battle in the G1 Goodwood at Santa Anita.
This was a ‘win and you’re in’ race for the Breeders’ Cup Classic – and Bob Baffert (stays at #4, -2) fancies the big show for the lightly-raced winner.
“Unless I see something I don’t like between now and then, as of now we’ll definitely run in the Breeders’ Cup,” he said. “He’ll like the distance. He was just getting going there at the end.”
Leading Californian-based turfer Johannes (#76 from #92, +56pt) is back en route to the BC Mile after completing back-to-back successes in the G2 City of Hope – on only his second start since a runner-up effort at last year’s Breeders’ Cup. Shame the BC isn’t at Santa Anita for him, as he is eight-for-eight over that grass.
Dual G1 winner Locked (#36 from #75pt, +106pt) regained winning form in the G2 Woodward at Aqueduct.
Looking further afield, veteran eight-year-old Win Carnelian (#185 from #752pt, +245pt) grabbed his first G1 success in the Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama – in a time of 1m 06.9s the second-fastest winning time of the race after the great Lord Kanaloa set a new track record in 2012 (1m 06.7s).
Godolphin three-year-old Beiwacht (#196 from #896pt, +275pt) went one better in Australia with a course record in the Golden Rose at Rosehill, while barely a week seems to go by without mentioning the name of leading French-based trainer Francis Graffard (stays at #7, +23pt).
With Arc weekend in the offing, Graffard landed yet another G1 win with the Aga Khan Studs’ Sibayan (#89 from #221, +136pt) in the Preis von Europa at Cologne racecourse on Sunday [Sept 28].
Britain’s schedule was largely dominated by two-year-old races – but the hugely progressive Zeus Olympios (#63 from #309, +261pt, a three-year-old son of Night Of Thunder (#7 from #8, +66pt among turf sires) took his unbeaten record to four in the G2 Joel Stakes at Newmarket on Friday [Sept 26], readily accounting for ‘talking horse’ Opera Ballo.
A fine season is being enjoyed by every member of the winning team, namely owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid (#13 from #19, +96pt), trainer Karl Burke (#29 from #34, +26pt) and jockey Clifford Lee (#62 from #73, +24pt). Indeed, 24 hours later, they combined again to land the valuable Cambridgeshire – a historic handicap – with top-weight Boiling Point, who is clearly a Group horse.
• View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires
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• Unlike traditional methods of racehorse rankings, TRC Global Rankings are a measure of an individual’s level of achievement over a rolling three-year period, providing a principled hierarchy of the leading horses, jockeys, trainers, owners and sires using statistical learning techniques. Racehorse rankings can be compared to similar exercises in other sports, like the golf’s world rankings or the ATP rankings in tennis.
They are formulated from the last three years of races we consider Group or Graded class all over the world and update automatically each week according to the quality of a horse’s performances and their recency, taking into account how races work out.