A busy week, which saw Forever Young claim a second Saudi Cup, has led to movement across numerous classifications.
Three of our classifications have experienced change towards the top.
Forever Young climbs two places from #4 to #2 in the Horses table, Bob Baffert moves from #3 to #2 in the Trainers table (taking the spot from Charlie Appleby) and James McDonald has taken over from Ryan Moore as #1 in the Jockeys table.
Elsewhere, Forever Young’s sire, Real Steel, has jumped two places from #9 to #7 in the Dirt Sires section (where Candy Ride is in touching distance of the top ten) and ten places from #40 to #30 in the Overall Sires classification.
In the Turf Sires section, Street Boss has gone up two places from #13 to #11, putting him one place short of the top ten, after a weekend in which his son Tentyris (#14 from #168) won the Black Caviar Lightning.
Given a rail-skimming ride, Forever Young showed his toughness in an unforgettable Saudi Cup.
Nysos, the Saudi Cup’s runner-up was, however, part of a good meeting for Bob Baffert, who moved up in the Trainers classification and sits just below table leader Aidan O’Brien.
Nysos moved from #9 to #8 in the Horses classification, where fellow Baffert-trained Imagination, who won the Riyadh Dirt Sprint, went from #122 to #35.
Another offshoot of the Saudi Cup is that third-placed Tumbarumba, who’s a bit of a grinder, moved from #144 to #119. More significantly, because I don’t really think he’s a top-notch horse, is the fact that he was second to Imperial Emperor on his previous start.
Imperial Emperor is massively improving. His victory in the Al Maktoum Challenge, which has been upgraded by the algorithm, has moved him to #17 from #28 and I presume he’s a Dubai World Cup contender.
The second-best performance of the week, I think, came from Karl Burke’s eight-year-old Royal Champion, who showed a blistering turn of foot to win the other Group 1 on the Saudi Cup card, the Neom Turf Cup.
Karl Burke is a heck of a trainer, and he also had a couple of placed horses in the Gulf to move himself to #14 from #16.
Down under
There are two Australian winners who I’m particularly excited about from a rankings perspective: Tentyris and Autumn Glow seem to be superstars in the making.
Tentyris won another Group 1, the Black Caviar Lightning, with a wicked turn of foot, coming from the back of the field to win a steadily run race in a bunched finish.
He goes from #168 to #14. When a horse wins their second Group 1, that big jump tends to happen, as our system is quite sceptical to start with.
At Randwick, Autumn Glow won the Apollo Stakes and, on the same card, Autumn Glow’s jockey, James ‘J-Mac’ McDonald, also won the Expressway aboard Joliestar (#30 from #59).
J-Mac has now taken over from Ryan Moore as #1 in our Jockeys classification. So, for now, the Kiwi is on top, though this’ll probably not be the category’s last lead change in 2026.
We’re lucky to be able to watch jockeys of this calibre week in, week out. It’s a big part of what makes international racing so much fun.
The rankings already had a very high opinion of Autumn Glow, with many of the races she has won being open sex.
She was a very easy winner of the Apollo, despite it being a bit wet, and the ground therefore not being particularly suitable for her.
She moves like a bird, travelling and quickening like a brilliant racehorse. With her linear action, the better the ground, the better she is.
She’s now in our top ten, at #9, having already been #22, and she’s going to be an exciting horse to watch for the rest of the Australian season.
Three-year-olds
Al Haram won the Saudi Derby and Paladin the Risen Star at Fair Grounds.
Both are going some for three-year-olds at this time of year and Al Haram, who’s Saudi trained by Abdullah Alsidrani (#313), is a very strong stayer.
He takes a while to get going but he finished his race off strongly at the weekend, beating Obliteration (up to #332 from #564), a Grade 3 Sanford Stakes winner, and going in at #117.
Paladin, who carries the Michael Tabor silks and is the other three-year-old star of the week, goes up to #65 from #364 with his second Grade 2 win, having already taken the Remsen.
Although he lacks something in the brilliance department, he lacks nothing in the attitude department, progressing and thriving as is typical for a son of Gun Runner (#3 in the Dirt Sires classification and #5 in the Overall Sires classification). He’ll get the Kentucky Derby distance for sure, and we’ll see more of him.
So, a superb week of global racing. In all, I calculate 31 races that counted towards the rankings, including three top-level races in the form of the Saudi Cup, the Neom Turf Cup and the Black Caviar Lightning.
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