Ka Ying Rising sits atop the Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings heading into Sunday's Chairman's Sprint Prize. Romantic Warrior is not far behind. But in the context of this award, what does "world's best racehorse" actually mean?
Less than you might think.
The rankings are not really rankings at all. They are ratings – a number assigned to a single performance, placed in order. The horse with the highest-rated individual run wins the title. Not the best season. Not the best body of work. One run.
It is a system that has been causing headaches for as long as it has existed, and the examples of its absurdity are piling up.
Take Laurel River in 2024. He ran three times all season. Three. His Dubai World Cup demolition earned him a rating of 128 and the title of joint world's best racehorse. Meanwhile, Romantic Warrior went unbeaten in five races, won the Yasuda Kinen in Japan and a third consecutive Hong Kong Cup at home, and was rated 125 – equal fifth.
Five wins from five starts, across two countries, against top-class opposition. Equal fifth. Behind a horse who ran three times.
It is not a new problem. In 2017, Arrogate retained the world's best racehorse title on the back of his Dubai World Cup performance despite a mostly forgettable season. He was not even named America's Horse of the Year – that went to Gun Runner. Yet globally, Arrogate was still number one.
Then there is A Shin Hikari, perhaps the most entertaining example of all. The Japanese galloper won the 2016 Hong Kong Cup in breathtaking fashion, earning a rating that placed him equal fifth in the world. Twelve months later, he returned to Sha Tin and broke loose in the pre-parade ring, terrorizing horses and handlers alike. A Shin Hikari was brilliant on his day – the problem was that "his day" was not something anyone could rely on.
A contender for world's best racehorse? A Shin Hikari could barely be trusted to make it to the starting gates.
This is not how most people understand greatness. Greatness is not a single flash of brilliance – it is doing it again and again, under pressure, against the best, when everyone knows you are coming.
David Hayes, who trains Ka Ying Rising, put it simply this week when asked what separates the good from the great.
"The consistency of the way they rate – they run to their best," he said. "A lot of good horses, their best is very good, but they don't run to it all the time. But these two do."
These two. Ka Ying Rising and Romantic Warrior. Twenty consecutive wins for one. Twenty-two from 29 starts for the other. Between them, 21 Group 1 victories. That is not a peak – it is a mountain range.
Jockey Zac Purton, who has been aboard Ka Ying Rising for every one of those 20 straight wins, offered a window into what relentless consistency looks like from the saddle.
"He has just run that 128 rating since he came back from The Everest and then went up to 130 last start – and that is the hardest thing for the other horses," Purton said. "They may turn up one day and run a 'PB' but turn up the next day and they are a length and a half below their best and get beaten five."
The LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings may call Ka Ying Rising the world's best racehorse. For once, they might actually be right – just not for the reasons they think.
