This week was marked by the publication of the annual Longines-sponsored World Best Racehorse Rankings. Here’s how they would have looked according to TRC race ratings …
The highest-rated performance of 2025 according to Thoroughbred Racehorse Commentary’s exclusive Race Ratings was achieved by Forever Young with his victories in the Saudi Cup and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where he made history as the Japan’s first winner of America’s richest race.
The Japanese four-year-old (now five) hit the mark of TRC133 in both races – two points higher than the top mark of 131 achieved in 2024 by both Sierra Leone and City Of Troy.
As such, Saudi Cup-bound Forever Young would be labelled the ‘world’s best racehorse’ on our listings if we followed the same methodology as the official handicappers of the IFHA (International Federation of Horseracing Authorities), who this week named Japan Cup hero Calandagan as their number one.
But we don’t. Despite his formidable exploits, Forever Young stands at #3 in the latest edition of TRC Global Rankings, published on Tuesday [Jan 20], where Hong Kong’s superstar sprinter is #1 for the 36th week overall. Calandagan, the European Horse of the Year, is at #2.
Calandagan did have a fortnight as TRC #1 after his magnificent Japan Cup win, but Ka Ying Rising reasserted his pre-eminence when he completed back-to-back wins in the Hong Kong Sprint with a commanding performance last month.
‘In a league of his own’ – imperious Ka Ying Rising reclaims #1 spot on world rankings
Our accompanying table (compiled by TRC Global Rankings guru James Willoughby) lists the best performances of 2025 according to TRC Race Ratings – no more, no less – ranked in descending order by individual horses. This is therefore the same method as that employed by the IFHA team.
TRC best performances 2025
You may note that Ka Ying Rising, Romantic Warrior and Calandagan share a three-way tie with a best of TRC132. The sprinter hit this mark on no fewer than three occasions in the calendar year; for good measure, he was also named Timeform Horse of the Year for 2025, while he topped worldwide rankings according to the highly respected Racing Post team.
It may also be noted that Sovereignty, a mortal lock to be named US Horse of the Year at the Eclipse Awards, has a best of TRC129. (Please forgive this technical aside, but his name being absent from the latest edition of TRC Global Rankings because he hasn’t run since the Travers Stakes and is thus automatically excluded via the 120-cutoff rule. We want only active horses.)
Ka Ying Rising is set to run in the Centenary Sprint Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday [Jan 25], when he bids to equal Silent Witness’s record for a Hong Kong-trained horse of 17 victories in a row.
Trainer David Hayes appears supremely confident about his chances. “Last start was probably his best win and he seems no worse,” he said, speaking to the HKJC media team. “What’s so special about him is that he just keeps putting up consistent ratings that are exceptional. Everything tells me that he’s the same.”
Incidentally, former world #1 Romantic Warrior is also in action on Sunday’s card in the G1 Stewards’ Cup, in which he clashes with #10 Voyage Bubble.
In simple terms, Ka Ying Rising tops our rankings because our algorithm currently ranks his overall body of work higher than that of the estimable Calandagan – and, indeed, every other active horse on the planet.
That is not the same thing as saying he achieved the best performance of 2025, however, which is what the official lists seek to identify. What is more, it has been suggested that Hong Kong sprint form is often underrated on the IFHA ratings – ironic, given the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s immense influence at a global level.
With all this in mind, perhaps you may forgive me for repeating myself for the umpteenth time on this specific issue. The so-called World Best Racehorse Rankings that were published this week are a complete misnomer – and that is not to disparage the diligent work of the accomplished team of handicapping experts who compile these IFHA lists. But they do not identify the ‘world’s best racehorse’ – or at least, despite their title, that is not their primary function.
Of course, they may sometimes alight on the world’s best racehorse, but it is no more than a snappy title because what they actually do is to list the merit of individual performances as per the cogitations of their esteemed body of international of handicappers representing various major racing jurisdictions.
In no way can these Longines end-of-year rankings claim to offer “horse racing’s equivalent” to ATP Tennis Rankings or World Golf Rankings.
Those other sports offer rolling rankings, updated on a regular basis so that whoever tops the list in any given week can be regarded as the current #1. (Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka for tennis, Scottie Scheffler and Jeen Thitikul for golf where, intriguingly, another high-end Swiss watch firm is the sponsor, namely Rolex.)
A much closer approximation to other sports rankings is offered by the weekly TRC Global Rankings for horses, jockeys, trainers, owners and sires.
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.
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.
They are the result of an algorithm – and therefore completely impartial. On the other hand, in the past it has sometimes been hard to resist the suggestion that politicking and gerrymandering have been known to affect the IFHA outcome.
Arguably the most egregious example of this occurred two decades ago in 2006 (before the advent of TRC Rankings) when somehow the great Deep Impact never made it to the summit of the official rankings.
Maybe something was lost in translation from the Japanese handicapper, or perhaps the Japanese horse’s brilliant Arima Kinen success on December 24 came a little late in the calendar year – after the Hong Kong International meeting (sponsored by Longines) when the handicappers meet to discuss their figures.
According to Racing Post Ratings, Deep Impact’s performance was the clear best that year – but Invasor topped the IFHA list, with both Bernardini and Discreet Cat also above the Japanese equine idol.
Similarly, Australia’s mighty mare Winx holds the record for most number of weeks on top of the TRC Global Rankings with a total of 176 weeks between 2016 and 2019 as she established a legendary winning streak of 33 consecutive races including a world-record 25 G1 events.
Only once was she acclaimed as the ‘world’s best racehorse’ under the parameters of the official standings – in 2018, and even then, only jointly with Cracksman, whose peak form was achieved via runaway successes in the mud.
• View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires
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‘In a league of his own’ – imperious Ka Ying Rising reclaims #1 spot on world rankings
Japan Cup hero Calandagan on top of the world as he claims #1 spot on global rankings
Saudi Cup likely for Nysos after Breeders’ Cup winner hits world top ten with another gutsy display