Despite making history with her incredible performances, Enable still cannot lay claim to being the best racehorse in the world.
Winning two Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe renewals and the Breeders’ Cup Turf – becoming the first horse to win both in the same year, plus the Epsom and Irish Oaks and the King George VI and Elizabeth Stakes, has not been enough to see the five-year-old ascend to the top of the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings.
Of course, Enable’s win in the King George at Royal Ascot came by just a neck from Crystal Ocean, who the ratings-makers feel is the best thoroughbred around.
Sir Michael Stoute’s charge gave up 3lb to Enable at Ascot, and so he retains a rating of 127 – a head-scratching four points clear of his nemesis.
But with Enable launching an assault on a third Arc triumph later in the year, surely she will cement her position as the leading middle distance horse on the planet – even if the ratings don’t reflect as such.
Best of the Rest Highlights Racing’s Strength in Depth
| Position | Horse | Trainer | Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Crystal Ocean | Sir Michael Stoute | £1.8 million |
| =2nd | Beauty Generation | John Moore | £8.4 million |
| =2nd | City Of Light | Michael McCarthy | £4.4 million |
| =2nd | Winx | Chris Waller | £14.6 million |
| =5th | Blue Point | Charlie Appleby | £2.6 million |
| =5th | Santa Ana Lane | Anthony Freedman | £2.9 million |
| =7th | Enable | John Gosden | £9.1 million |
| =7th | Happy Clapper | Patrick Webster | £3.7 million |
| =9th | Magical | Aidan O’Brien | £1.7 million |
| =9th | Old Persian | Charlie Appleby | £3.3 million |
| =9th | Waldgeist | Andre Fabre | £1.7 million |
There’s a three-way tie in second place, according to the Longines standings. The incomparable Winx, who thankfully for her opponents down in Australia as now retired, won 33 straight races between May 2015 and April of this year including 25 Group Ones, which is a world record.
She is joined by City of Light, the dirt specialist who was also retired following his Pegasus World Cup triumph after winning the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, and Beauty Generation. That New Zealand bred horse has enjoyed a stunning career in Hong Kong to date.
The top five is rounded out by Blue Point, the Charlie Appleby trained horse running in the Godolphin colours, and the Australian charger Santa Ana Lane.
Enable comes in at a lowly seventh – ridiculous as though it may be, while there are other British and Irish interests inside the rest of the top ten. Magical, the Aidan O’Brien horse who so narrowly missed out on a win in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, sits joint ninth after an excellent 2019 campaign in which she has triumphed in the Alleged Stakes, the Tattersalls Gold Cup and the Mooresbridge Stakes.
She is tied with Waldgeist, who was third to Enable and Crystal Ocean in the King George, and Old Persian, a Godolphin horse that runs almost exclusively in the Middle East. They have both improved their rating to 124 according to Longines’ listings.
Other movers of note are McKinzie, the impressive American horse who is up to twelfth, and Stradivarius, the exceptional five-year-old who has already won one Stayers’ Million and who might complete a second later in the year. His rating of 120 will surely rise.
Sadly, one horse who won’t improve their Longines number is Too Darn Hot, who is tied for 16th with Stradivarius at 120. The John Gosden trained colt sadly suffered a hairline fracture of his leg in winning the Sussex Stakes, and the three-time Group 1 winner has now been retired to stud.