With the best action taking place at Randwick in Sydney at what has quickly become one of the world’s great race meets, it is hardly surprising that the most significant movers and shakers in the TRC Global Rankings this week come from the Southern Hemisphere.
Aussie jockeys Blake Shinn (now world #11), Zac Purton (now #23) and Hugh Bowman (now just one point behind Ryan Moore at the top of the standings) were among the big climbers as a result of day one of The Championships, although over in South Africa there was plenty of movement after a big meeting at Turffontein Standside.
Highest climbers of the week across the rankings are the South African trainers Mike de Kock (plus 11 points week on week) and Sean Tarry (plus ten). That catapults de Kock 32 places up the standings to world #80. The 48-year-old Tarry, less well known internationally than the globetrotting de Kock but an elite conditioner in South Africa for more than a decade, is up 15 places to world #60 - he is the highest ranked trainer in the country, one place ahead of de Kock.
But pride of place goes to the formidable Aussie stallion Snitzel after a weekend of prodigious achievement in two jurisdictions.
Not only is he responsible for a G1 winner at Turffontein Standside (the de Kock-trained Heavenly Blue in the SA Classic) and two big winners on the Randwick card (G1 scorer Invader and Diddums in a G3), but Invader (ridden by Bowman) was leading home a 1-2-3 for the Arrowfield stallion in the Inglis Sires’, one of Australia’s most important 2-year-old contests.
As a result, the son of Redoute’s Choice gains nine TRC rankings points, firing him up 12 places to #13 in the sires’ standings.
There is also a big upward move from another Aussie stallion, Encosta De Lago, who climbs eight places to #23 primarily because of the you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it performance below by the astonishing Chautauqua in the G1 TJ Smith Stakes in Sydney.
Hugh Bowman gains four points after the first day of The Championships and, with Moore losing two, is now just one point off the lead. He has an outstanding chance of going ahead on day two on Saturday, when his mounts include Winx in the biggest race of The Championships, the G1 Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
It is ironic that Moore should actually lose points following a weekend when he was grabbing much of the attention in the British racing media after exploding out of the blocks on the first day of the UK flat turf season. The world #1 (at least for now) won the first three races on the card - but none of them count in the TRC Global Rankings, which considers only results in Group and Graded races.
Click here for a list of the week’s biggest points gainers.
Click here for a list of the week’s group and graded winners.