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World's Best Racehorse Rankings: a pedigree perspective
Cracksman: his father’s son
The World Rankings confirm Frankel’s talent as a sire, writes Alan Porter
In 2012 Frankel earned the distinction of being the highest-rated horse since the global rankings were first conceived. More significant, however, is that the utter dominance of Frankel was a catalyst for a recalibration of the International Classifications and World Thoroughbred Rankings from 1977 onwards.
It’s rare that a great racehorse gets a horse as good as himself, and Frankel hasn’t done this yet. What he has done, with his oldest runners still just five years of age, is to be represented by a horse who has emulated him by topping the world-rankings.
The horse in question Cracksman, a member of Frankel’s first crop, was the top European of 2017 on 130. In 2018 he repeated that rating, and with Arrogate (rated 134 last year) retired, and Australian wonder-mare
Winx dropping from 132 to 130, that figure – incidentally, 10 points lower than Frankel’s peak – was sufficient to gain a share of the honours.
Four other members of Frankel’s first crop – Monarchs Glen, Mozu Ascot, Mirage Dancer, Call The Wind – were considered good enough to rate among the world’s elite, and two three-year-olds Without Parole and Nelson were also present.
Clearly the fears that Frankel’s pedigree – he’s by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) out of a Danehill (Danzig) mare so combining two of the dominant strains of the era in Europe – has proved not to an impediment to his success.
Inbreeding closely has had a limited impact for him as there are only three stakes winners from 38 starters (about eight per cent to starters, less than half his strike-rate with all other mares) and just two (including Cunco who has both Sadler’s Wells and Danehill duplicated) from 26 mares where Danehill is involved.
Duplications a little further back do seem effective as Cracksman is one of two stakes winners from mares by Pivotal (a grandson of Sadler’s Wells’s three-quarters brother, Nureyev), both with Green Desert (Danzig) also in the dam.
Nureyev is actually in ten (from 49 starters) of Frankel’s stakes wnners, including another Group 1 winner in Without Parole (dam by Lemon Drop Kid).
Frankel is also sire of 12 stakes winners, nine group or graded, out of Mr. Prospectorline mares, including one out of a mare by the horse who has been the nearest rival to his sire, Dubawi.
He has 19.6 per cent stakes winners to foals and 24.7 per cent stakes winners to starters, 16.2 per cent Group or graded winners to foals, 20.4 per cent to starters. Even allowing for the tremendous book of mares Frankel covered, those are quite phenomenal figures.
The position at the top of the table of both Cracksman and Winx and the tie-between the two has not been without controversy.
For Cracksman, it’s been noted that this year, like last, he showed his peak form in the Champion Stakes (G1) on very soft ground. As far as Winx is concerned there have been questions marks over the strength of the opposition, and her winning margins, although it might be argued that, like Zenyatta, another great mare by her sire Street Cry, her usual off-the pace style tends not to reflect the true measure of her superiority.
Still, the now eight-year-old (to northernhemisphere time) mare just keeps winning, and when at the end of October she took one of Australia’s great races the Cox Plate (G1) for the fourth time, she was recording her 29th straight victory. She’s also emerged with the laurels from her last 22 starts in Grade 1 events.
While Australia is famed as a nursery of world-class sprinters – the undefeated mare Black Caviar topped the World Rankings in 2013 – it’s been less notable for intermediate/ middle-distance runners, such as Winx. Winx as joint-leader on the rankings has had the effect of also dragging more Australian intermediate/middle-distance horses into the higher reaches of the classifications.
Given the predominance of speed sires in Australia it’s no surprise that many of the stand-outs in those classifications are imports from Europe, such as Hartnell (Authorized), who avoided Winx in 2018 after having finished second to her four times in previous encounters, Brave Smash (bred in Japan, by Tosen Phantom, a son of the Sunday Silence horse Neo Universe) and French-bred Gailo Chop (by the Night Shift horse Deportivo).
That said the highest-rated Australian Turf male in the medium or intermediate distances is a homebred, the now eight-yearold (to northern-hemisphere time) Happy Clapper. He is by Teofilo (by Galileo, and bred on the same cross as Frankel) out of a mare by Encosta De Lago, a son of Fairy King and thus has the brothers Sadler’s Wells and Fairy King 3x3.
Teofilo has been far more successful in Australia than the majority of recent shuttlers, especially middle-distance types as he has got Happy Clapper and the other Grade 1 winners Humidor, Palentino, Kermadec and Sonntag.
One thing charted by the World Rankings has been the rising standard of racing in Hong Kong. Like Australia this has been particularly apparent with sprinters, but for 2018 the leading older medium-distance Turf horse is Hong Kong-trained Beauty Generation (ex Montaigne).
He is a New Zealand-bred – he is by the Encosta De Lago horse Road To Rock and out of a mare by Black Caviar’s sire Bel Esprit (Royal Academy), a stallion who is turning into a smart broodmare sire.
The top older Turf horses in the intermediate and medium categories in the US were a fairly modest bunch in 2018. Rather confusingly, the highest-rated older horse to run on Turf in the US is Yoshida, who won the Turf Classic (G1) on the lawn, but is rated on the basis of his victory in the Woodward Stakes (G1) over 1m2f on the Dirt.
Purchased in Japan, Yoshida is by Heart’s Cry (Sunday Silence) out of the high-class US sprint mare Hilda’s Passion (by the Gone West horse, Canadian Frontier).
Roaring Lion: chances for a Kitten’s Joy sire line to develop in Europe
The top three-year-old colt on the classifications – and weighted in the intermediate category – was Roaring Lion on 127.
He’d been beaten a neck by Saxon Warrior in the Racing Post Trophy (G1) at two, finished fifth behind the same horse (who was rated 121 this year) in the 2,000 Guineas (G1), and third to Masar (also 121) in the Epsom Derby (G1). He then turned into a formidable runner defeating Saxon Warrior by a neck in the Eclipse Stakes (G1) and Irish Champion Stakes (G1), defeating Poet’s Word by over 3l for the Juddmonte International (G1), and finally cutting back to a mile to take the Queen Elizabeth Stakes II (G1).
Roaring Lion is a son of Kitten’s Joy, a champion US Turf horse and a son of Sadler’s Wells’s champion Irish two-year-old El Prado.
Kitten’s Joy earned a second US leading sires’ title in 2018, and he’s going to have a shot at establishing a European branch of his line. In addition to Roaring Lion he also has Hawkbill, another top level performer, retiring to stud in England this year joining Bobby’s Kitten, who is already at stud in Newmarket at Lanwades Stud.
Roaring Lion’s dam, who was Grade 1 placed in the US, is by Street Cry, whose dam is a Northern Dancer/His Majesty cross like Danehill, indicating one strain that might work well here.
The 2,000 Guineas (G1) victor Saxon Warrior and Epsom Derby (G1) winner Masar both have intriguing pedigrees and both are worth reviewing.
Saxon Warrior is by the Japan’s superstar sire Deep Impact, a son of the all-conquering Sunday Silence. He followed the 2012 French Poule d’Essai des Poulains (G1) winner Beauty Parlour as the second European Classic winner by Deep Impact and was soon followed by the 2018 Prix du Jockey-Club (G1) winner Study Of Man, who is by Deep Impact and out of a Storm Cat daughter of Miesque.
While Saxon Warrior is from a sire line that is an outcross for most European mares, his dam Maybe is a champion European two-year-old who won the Moyglare Stud Stakes (G1) at 7f. She is by Galileo out of a Danehill mare so giving some interesting inbreeding possibilities.
Masar, by New Approach, is out of Khawlah, winner of the UAE Oaks (G3) and UAE Derby (G2). She is by Cape Cross, and both New Approach and Cape Cross are by Northern Dancer line horses out of Ahonoora mares.
More interesting, however, is that Masar’s fourth dam is Urban Sea, also of course the dam of New Approach’s sire, Galieo. That makes Masar the first – and to date only – stakes winner inbred to Urban Sea.
It is also important to note that Khawlah is bred on very similar lines to Sea The Stars, pointing to the potential of crossing New Approach with mares by that stallion.
Turf fillies headed by two stars
Top among the three-year-old Turf fillies are two true standouts in Japan’s Almond Eye and the Irish-bred Alpha Centauri.
Runner-up on her debut at two, Almond Eye has won each of her subsequent six starts, including the Oka Sho (the Japanese 1,000 Guineas (G1)), the Yushun Himba (the Japanese Oaks (G1)), the Shuko Sho (G1) and Japan Cup (G1).
The world’s top sprint male for 2013 Lord Kanaloa is the product of a sire and dam who were imported from the US in utero.
He’s by King Kamehameha, a former leading sire in Japan and a son of Kingmambo out of the Irish-bred Last Tycoon mare, Manfath.
Almond Eye
Lord Kanaloa’s dam Lady Blossom is by Storm Cat out of the US Champion three-year-old filly, Saratoga. In direct female line the family goes back to a sister of Secretariat.
Alpha Centauri had a major reputation early on in her two-year-old career, and after running off the board in her first outing in 2018 lived up to it in no uncertain style taking in succession the Irish 1,000 Guineas (G1), the Coronation Stakes (G1) by 6l, the Falmouth Stakes (G1) by 4l, and against older males the Prix Jacques Le Marois (G1).
Apha Centauri is by the European champion two-year-old, Irish 2,000 Guineas (G1) and St. James’s Palace Stakes (G1) winner Mastercraftsman (Danehill Dancer).
He fired off 15 stakes winners from his first crop – juveniles of 2013 – and Alpha Centauri is from the first crop sired after Mastercraftsman had earned a leading freshman sires’ title.
Alpha Centauri’s dam Alpha Lupi is by Rahy and out of the champion East Of The Moon, heroine of the French Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (G1), the Prix de Diane (G1) and Prix Jacques Le Marois (G1). Out of the great mare Miesque, East Of The Moon is a half-sister to Kingmambo – whom we’ve just mentioned as appearing in the male line of Almond Eye – and amongst the many top-class runners desending from Miesque we also find Study Of Man.
Recoletos and Poet’s Voice head two of the older horse categories
Runner-up to Alpha Centauri in the Prix Jacques Le Marois (G1) was Recoletos whose victories in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp (G1) and Prix d’Ispahan (G1) saw him rated the top mediumdistance older horse in Europe.
He, too, has a Kingmambo link as he is by Whipper, who is by Kingmambo’s brother Miesque’s Son. Recoletos has the brothers Sadler’s Wells/Fairy King 3x3 with their three-quarters brother Nureyev in the fourth generation, as well as the sister and brother Millieme and Shirley Heights 3x5.
Recoletos’s dam Highphar also had another multiple Group winner in 2018 – the three-year-old filly Castellar, who was by American Post and inbred 3x3 to Sadler’s Wells/Fairy King.
Top older horse in the Long Distance category is Poet’s Word on 125. He scored a pair of Group 1 victories in 2018 taking the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Prince of Wales Stakes.
Poet’s Word is by some way the best runner for the late Poet’s Voice, a son of Dubawi. He’s out of Whirly Bird, a stakes-placed Nashwan mare, who is also dam of the Group winner Malabar, and great grand-dam of the Group winner Beckford. Grand-dam Inchyre is a Shirley Heights daughter of the Group winner and very successful broodmare Inchmurrin.
Poet’s Word was just one point ahead of Crystal Ocean and Enable. Crystal Ocean won three Group races in his first three starts of 2018, was beaten a neck by Poet’s Word in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1), was second to Enable in the September Stakes (G3) and second to Cracksman in the Champion Stakes (G1).
Crystal Ocean is a son of Sea Of Stars – himself a one-time world leader and a halfbrother to Galileo – and is a three-quarters brother to the multiple Group winner Crystal Capella (by Cape Cross, sire of Sea Of Stars) and a half-brother to the Grade 1-winning Hillstar. All are out of the stakes-winning Mark Of Esteem mare, Crystal Star.
A trio of stars for Sea The Stars
Sea The Stars also had three other stand-outs in 2018 – Cloth Of Stars, Stradivarius and Sea Of Class.
Cloth Of Stars, who took the Prix Ganay (G1) in 2017, didn’t win last year, but was the first male home (third) in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1). He has retired to stud in France and is out of the Kingmambo mare Strawberry Fledge. She is a sister to Light Shift, winner of the Epsom Oaks (G1) and dam of the champion older horse Ulysses by Sea The Stars’s half-brother Galileo.
Stradivarius proved himself an exceptional stayer – he heads the extended distance division – going undefeated through five starts in Group competition from 1m6f to 2m4f, which included the Ascot Gold Cup (G1) and Goodwood Cup (G1).
A half-brother to Persian Storm – highweight at three in Germany – Stradivarius is out of Private Life, a halfsister to the grand-dam of Protectionist, a highweighted stayer in Europe and Australia, and winner of the Melbourne Cup (G1).
Stradivarius will be back next year, and so will Sea Of Class. She showed herself to be a very progressive filly winning four straight races, including the Irish Oaks (G1) and Yorkshire Oaks (G1), and staging a powerful late run that took her within a short-neck of Enable in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1). Sea Of Class is a half-sister to four other stakes winners, including the Italian Group 1 winners Charity Line and Final Score. Their dam, the stakes winner Holy Moon, is by Hernando, who rather interestingly parallels Sea The Stars in that he is by a Northern Dancer line stallion out of a Miswaki mare.
Enable: a formidable daughter of Nathaniel
If Sea Of Class does make it to next year’s Arc she might find herself in a rematch with Enable. An injury-truncated campaign saw Enable drop from 128 in 2017 to 125 in 2018, but she remains a formidable runner.
She defeated Crystal Ocean by over 3l in the September Stakes (G3) on her belated seasonal debut, then captured the Arc on only her second seasonal start. She completed her brief campaign by defeating the British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes (G1) winner Magical in the Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1).
Enable is from the first crop of Nathaniel, who himself was a member of the same crop of Galileo as Frankel. He was an outstanding runner at three and four, his victories including the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1) and Eclipse Stakes (G1).
He’s now got 12 stakes winners in his first crop – six Group class and including another Group 1 scorer in God Given, whose four Group victories include the Premio Lydia Tesion (G1) and Park Hill Stakes (G2).
Out of a mare by Sadler’s Wells, Enable has made a little pedigree history as she is the first Grade 1 winner inbred to Galileo’s sire Sadler’s Wells as close as 3x2 or 2x3.
Magical, the closest pursuer to Enable in the Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1), is a sister to multiple Group 1 winner Rhododendron, and by Galileo out of the Irish 1,000 Guineas (G1) winner Halfway To Heaven by Pivotal – a similar cross to Cracksman. She was rated equal to Sea Of Class on the basis of that proximity to Enable.
Dark Angel bossing the Turf Sprinters
The Turf sprinters Battaash and Trapeze Artist tied at the top. Last year Battaash was rated 123 and his fellow Dark Angel son Harry Angel was on 125. Battaash earned the same rating this time, with Harry Angel on 122, emphasising the standing of Dark Angel as the premier speed influence in Europe.
Parallel to Dark Angel, Australia’s current leading sire Snitzel (by Danehill’s son, Redoute’s Choice), was represented by Trapeze Artist, and just a point behind Redzel, whose credits include back-to-back wins in the richly-endowed The Everest. With somewhere around £8,500,000 in earnings, he may be the highest-earning sprinter of all time.
Accelerate hit full speed in 2018
Turning to North American and Dirt performers, Accelerate is rated top on 128 – two points below Cracksman and Winx – and one above the 2017 US Horse of the Year, Gun Runner, who retired to stud after taking the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) on his sole start of 2018.
In 2017 as a four-year-old Accelerate was good but not top-class, his limitations seemingly exposed with a third in the Pacific Classic (G1) and an off-the-board effort in the Breeder’s Cup Mile (G1).
He was a different horse in 2018 with six wins in seven starts, including the Santa Anita Handicap (G1), the Gold Cup at Santa Anita Stakes (G1), the Awesome Again Stakes (G1) and the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).
Accelerate, who will be at stud in 2019, is the best runner so far from the first four northern-hemisphere crops by Lookin At Lucky (Smart Strike), who was champion of his crop at both two and three, and the first horse to achieve that feat since Spectacular Bid in 1978-79.
Lookin At Lucky had another 2018 notable performer in the US in the shape of Wow Cat, an undefeated Classic winner in Chile from a South American shuttle crop. He took the Beldame Stakes (G1) and finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff Stakes (G1).
Accelerate is out of a mare by Awesome Again, and therefore bred on a version of the highly successful Smart Strike/Deputy Minister cross. It’s also interesting to note that Accelerate’s fourth dam is a half-sister to Smarten, the broodmare sire of Smart Strike, giving Accelerate a double of that family.
The only horse to defeat Accelerate during 2018 was City Of Light, who had a neck to spare over Accelerate at the end of the Oaklawn Handicap (G2).
Rated eight points below Accelerate, City Of Light made something of mockery of that assignment when romping home by five and three-quarter lengths in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) this January, with Acclerate back in third.
He had produced a similarly brilliant display in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1), and at the time of his retirement – to stand alongside Accelerate at Lane’s End Farm – City Of Light might have been the best horse in training in the US.
City Of Light’s sire Quality Road, a son of Elusive Quality, was a horse of immense natural talent. The leading freshman sire of 2014, Quality Road went through a brief quiet patch, but has rebounded to take a place among the sire elite in the US.
City Of Light is out of a mare by Dehere, and is therefore a product of the Quality Road/Deputy Minister cross that also produced Abel Tasman.
Abel Tasman and Monomoy Girl shared the honours
A champion 2017 three-year-old filly in the US, Abel Tasman added two more Grade 1 victories in 2018, and officially shared top spot as the top US distaff performer with her successor to the sophomore crown, Monomoy Girl.
The latter, a daughter of Tapizar (Tapit) and out of a mare by Henny Hughes, she was first past the post in all seven of her starts last year, including the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1).
The only blot on her record was a somewhat controversial disqualification in the Cotillion Stakes (G1) when she charted a rather erratic course in the stretch. She was deemed to have interfered with the second home Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute).
Despite earning an official position as the top older mare in the US last year, the Eclipse Award for champion older mare went to last year’s champion sprint filly or mare Unique Bella. She is by Tapit out of an Unbridled’s Song mare and inbred 3x3 to Unbridled.
The top US three-year-old was, of course, Justify, whose rating might have been higher than the 125 assigned to him had not the demands of going from maiden to Triple Crown winner in just 112 days cause him to be retired to stud after the Belmont Stakes (G1).
His remarkable trajectory was a reminder of just how big a loss was that of his sire Scat Daddy, who passed in December 2015, at the very early age of 11.
He’d developed into a true international superstar, and his 12 northern-hemispheresired Grade 1 winners include not only Justify, but also some brilliantly speedy performers who made their name in Europe – Lady Aurelia, No Nay Never (the leading European freshman sire of 2018), Caravaggio, Sioux Nation, who is now standing alongside No Nay Never, and Skitter Scatter.
Out of a mare by another great racehorse Ghostzapper, Justify has a rather interesting pedigree.
His grand-dam is by Pulpit, a horse whose own dam Preach is a sister to Yarn, the granddam of Scat Daddy’s sire, Johannesburg. Yarn and Preach are by Mr. Prospector out of mares by Honest Pleasure, whose brother, For The Moment, is sire of Justify’s fourth dam.
The grand-dam of Yarn and Preach is by Nijinsky, and the Mr. Prospector/Nijinsky cross also appears in Scat Daddy’s dam Love Style, who is by Mr. Prospector out of a Nijinsky mare.
Catholic Boy: mixed it up on both the Dirt and the Turf
The other interesting US three-year-old is Catholic Boy, who is rated 122. A graded stakes winner on Dirt and Turf at three, he was taken off the Kentucky Derby (G1) trail after a fourth in the Florida Derby (G1). After winning the Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (G1) on the lawn, he then went back to the Dirt and took the Travers Stakes (G1) at 1m2f by 4l from Mendelssohn.
It’s interesting that two major US Dirt races over 1m2f – which is now practically a marathon by US main track standards – were taken by Yoshida and Catholic Boy, both switching from the Turf, and it may point to the fact that most of the best US Dirt horses are really stretching out, onpace milers these days, and don’t really want 1m2f as they mature.
A son of More Than Ready, Catholic Boy is out of a mare by the A.P. Indy horse Bernadini, who is emerging as a promising broodmare sire. His granddam is a half-sister the Park Hill Stakes (G2) scorer Lucky Song.
The third dam Lucky Us is by Nijinsky out of the champion Argentine mare La Sevillana, and is a sister to The Temptress, grand-dam of champion Canadian threeyear-old filly La Lorgnette and grand-dam of the immensely talented, but enigmatic, Hawk Wing, who was by More Than Ready’s broodmare sire Woodman.
More Than Ready, who just completed his final shuttle season to Australia, has been a remarkably consistent sire of stakes winners, earning a leading sire of two-year-olds sires’ title in North America, and two in Australia.
In addition to Catholic Boy, the top Turf three-year-old colt in North America last year, More Than Ready was also represented by Rushing Fall, the top three-year-old Turf filly on the continent.
In an outstanding year, the 22-year-old son of Southern Halo was responsible for three other Grade 1 winners, who ranged from Funtastic, successful in the United Nations Handicap (G1) at 1m3f, and Roy H, who won his second successive Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1).
That victory earned the then six-yearold gelding a second Eclipse Award as champion sprinter, and a rating one point ahead of Battaash and Trapeze Artist as the world’s top sprinter.
