Hong Kong’s star miler Able Friend has ranked second in the first edition of the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings (WBRR) for 2015, with his stablemate Designs On Rome ranked joint third. The first instalment of this year’s rankings, issued by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, pertains to performances in races staged between 1 January and 8 March and has the US runner Shared Belief on top with a rating of 125.
Able Friend, who will run in the HK$10 million G1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) at Sha Tin on Sunday, achieved a rating of 124 for an easy victory in the G1 Stewards’ Cup on 25 January. The John Moore trainee’s main target this season is the HK$14 million G1 Champions Mile at Sha Tin on 3 May.
Designs On Rome has ranked the equal of Australia’s crack sprinter Lankan Rupee on a rating of 123. The five-year-old rounded out a stellar 2014 campaign with victory in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup, and ran up to the same level when he started off 2015 with a victory under top-weight in the HKG3 Centenary Vase (Handicap) - he has since added the G1 Citibank Hong Kong Gold Cup. That effort was rated 3lb better than Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Main Sequence’s recent G2 Mac Diarmida win at Gulfstream Park, with the pair due to clash in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic (2410m) at the end of March.
Designs On Rome’s next Sha Tin assignment will be the HK$20 million G1 Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup (2000m) on 26 April, a race he won last year.
LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings (Top 6): 1 January to 8 March, 2015
| SHARED BELIEF |
USA |
125 |
| ABLE FRIEND |
HK |
124 |
| DESIGNS ON ROME |
HK |
123 |
| LANKAN RUPEE |
AUS |
123 |
| CALIFORNIA CHROME |
USA |
121 |
| MAIN SEQUENCE |
USA |
120 |
LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings (1 January to 8 March, 2015)
