Just a week ago we were hailing jockey Corey Brown as the most significant mover of 2017 across the whole of the TRC Global Rankings. Well, guess what - he didn’t stop there. The 41-year-old Australian was the biggest climber in the world jockeys’ standings again last week.
The rider who began 2017 ranked #378 is now #55, having climbed another 12 places last week alone after winning G3s at Aussie tracks Gosford (last Thursday) and Doomben (on Saturday).
Check out the graph alongside to get a grasp of what a monumental 12 months it has been for Brown since he returned to riding full time in Australia after a three-year stint in Singapore. Brown took the place of Joao Moreira in Singapore when the Brazilian switched to Hong Kong, and the Aussie enjoyed a hugely successful spell there, riding 251 winners, which “reignited the fire in the belly”.
His Melbourne Cup victory aboard the Joseph O’Brien-trained Rekindling was the clear 2017 highlight, but Brown racked up another four G1s, starting with Terravista in the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes at Flemington last February, as he quickly rebuilt his career as a force to be reckoned with down under.
U.S. Hall of Famer Kent Desormeaux is another strong climber in the jockeys’ rankings, gaining six points week on week and climbing nine places to world #63 after a Santa Anita Group-race double on Silent Bird in the G3 Midnight Lute Stakes last Tuesday and Bowies Hero in the G2 Mathis Brothers Mile on Saturday.
These look to be positive times for the 47-year-old, whose problems with alcohol abuse have been widely reported. High point of 2017 was his Breeders’ Cup Sprint victory at Del Mar on the formidable Roy H, who was also responsible for his other G1 win of the year – in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship in October.
Scat Daddy gained just one ranking point last week, but it was enough to push him up from tenth into a tie for seventh in the world sires’ standings alongside Snitzel and Medaglia D’Oro. Daddys Lil Darling’s victory in the American Oaks at Santa Anita on Saturday was the son of Johannesburg’s seventh G1 winner of 2017 – all of them on turf.
It was also a deserved first G1 for the filly at the end of a mixed but largely admirable 2017, in which she was runner-up to Abel Tasman in the Kentucky Oaks before a sorry trip to England for the Epsom Oaks, where she was withdrawn before the start after being spooked by thunder and lightning and charging off under Olivier Peslier, who bailed out to avoid injury.
Her win on Saturday pushes trainer Ken McPeek up 12 places to #130 in the trainers’ rankings.
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.