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Hong Kong rates highly in LONGINES World��s Best Racehorse Rankings

20/01/2016

Hong Kong is consolidating its position at the fore of world horseracing’s elite echelon, with a record-matching 23 of its horses included in the year-end LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings. Hong Kong’s brilliant Horse of the Year Able Friend achieved the world’s top sprint rating and is the equal fifth best horse to have raced during 2015.

Hong Kong-trained horses produced seven individual performances during the year that achieved a rating of 120 or more, representing 10% of all performances around the world rated 120 or higher.

Mr. Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “For the second year running Hong Kong has 23 horses in the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, which is an outstanding achievement when considering the fact that Hong Kong has an active racing population of about 1200 horses. It is also striking that last year, across the globe, 70 performances were worthy of a rating of 120 or higher and 10 of those occurred in Hong Kong - that is 14% on Hong Kong turf, which hosts approximately only 0.6% of the flat races in jurisdictions with rated races. These notable feats exemplify the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s strategies, over a number of years, to ensure Hong Kong racing performs to a world elite standard.”

Able Friend earns his sprint distinction for a sensational win in October’s Premier Bowl Handicap (1200m) at Sha Tin, his first start of the current season, in which he defied top-weight of 133lb to defeat a field of top-class sprinters. The Hong Kong Horse of the Year’s stablemate, Designs On Rome (123), also ranked in the top 10 at joint-eighth thanks to his impressive weight-carrying effort in the HKG3 Centenary Vase Handicap, while Blazing Speed (121), Gold-Fun (120) and Military Attack (120) made it five Hong Kong horses in the world’s top 50.

Able Friend twice ran to a mark of 125 in 2015, two pounds below his career peak of 127 achieved in the 2014 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile. Hong Kong’s Champion Miler also reached that 125 figure when unleashing a stunning late turn-of-foot to win the G1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) in March. That performance resulted in Able Friend becoming the first Hong Kong horse ever to rank number one in the world rankings, albeit temporarily, and ensured that he ended the year as the world’s equal top-rated turf miler, alongside France’s Solow (125) who went through 2015 undefeated in six starts. 

Mr. Anthony Kelly, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Executive Director of Racing Business & Operations, said: “It is remarkable to think that a champion miler, having his first run of the campaign in what was essentially a warm-up for subsequent targets, could carry top-weight of 133 pounds, conceding weight to some of the best Group 1 sprinters in the world, and win with such brilliance. In doing that, Able Friend not only posted the best sprint performance seen anywhere in 2015, but he also emphasised Hong Kong racing’s world-class quality. 

“Hong Kong racing has come a long way. It is only 18 years since Johan Cruyff became the first Hong Kong horse to rank on the world list. By 2011 that number had climbed to 21, a figure repeated in 2013, and after a new high of 23 in 2014 it is very pleasing to maintain that standard in the World’s Best Racehorse Rankings through 2015. It is also worth noting that Hong Kong’s achievement of five horses in the world’s top 50 matches Japan and Australia, and compares very favourably to Ireland’s six, as well as the nine horses apiece for Great Britain and France. We are seeing Hong Kong’s consolidation as a world force.” 

Allied to the achievements of Hong Kong horses at home and abroad, Japanese star A Shin Hikari further emphasised Hong Kong racing’s high-end status as he climbed into the top 10 with a rating of 123 thanks to an outstanding win in December’s LONGINES Hong Kong Cup at Sha Tin.

America’s Triple Crown hero, American Pharoah, was named World’s Best Racehorse at the World’s Best Racehorse Award ceremony held at Claridge’s Hotel in London (GMT), Tuesday, 19 January.  The Bob Baffert-trained superstar achieved the two top-rated performances in the world, a peak 134 for his imperious Breeders’ Cup Classic (2000m) win and 131 for his victory in the Haskell Invitational (1800m).

Europe’s standout colt, Golden Horn, took the award for second place thanks to a rating of 130 (Derby and Eclipse Stakes), while Shared Belief (Santa Anita Handicap) and Treve (Prix Vermeille), the world’s best female, shared third-place with an equal rating of 126.

 

LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings 2015

Hong Kong Trained Horses in World Rankings since 1998

 

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