A look at some of the most notable movers in the TRC Global Rankings after last week’s action, which involved 41 Group or Graded races, including 15 Group or Grade 1s.
Beauty stars as Irad climbs into the top 20
Irad Ortiz Jr (+6pts, #19 from #21) was the most successful jockey of the week, winning four ranking races at Belmont Park, notably the G1 Just A Game Stakes on the former German-trained 5-year-old mare A Raving Beauty. Three of Ortiz’s wins came on turf.
Also in the U.S., there were riding doubles for Flavien Prat (+3pts, #17 from #18), Javier Castellano (+1pt, stays #7) and Joel Rosario (+5pts, #13 from 17).
Deep Impact maintains the momentum
At the top of the classification for sires, Galileo, Dubawi and Scat Daddy each had a single scorer (admittedly Scat Daddy’s did win the Triple Crown in the process), but the great Deep Impact (+1pt, stays #3) had two - following up his Derby victories in Japan and France over the past fortnight.
Japan’s #1 was responsible for a pair of G3 strikes on Sunday: the Mermaid Stakes at Hanshin with Andriette and the Epsom Cup at Tokyo with Satono Arthur.
Star stallion of the week
This was undoubtedly Quality Road (+8pts, #13 from #21) who stands at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky. Three wins went his way, notably G1 scores with Abel Tasman in the Ogden Phipps at Belmont and Spring Quality in the Manhattan Stakes there. His ranking is a high water mark.
What a loss!
Poet’s Voice (+10pts, #25 from #46) is sadly no longer with us. But glasses might have been raised to the former Godolphin stallion in Milan this week, following a double at San Siro. G2 Italian Oaks winner Sand Zabeel was the feature scorer. For the record, Poet’s Voice, a son of Dubawi who died in March aged just 11, has entered the top 25 for the first time.
Shades of Scat Daddy
It may be useful to keep an eye on Coolmore U.S. stallion Shanghai Bobby. The 2012 Todd Pletcher-trained champion U.S. juvenile is a new entry at #186 in the sires’ category after his first two wins, Grade 1s at Gavea, Brazil.
Could there be a parallel with Scat Daddy here? The world #5 was also trained by Pletcher and also developed momentum as a sire in South America, in his case Chile.
Career high for Derby winner Clark
Australian jockey Tim Clark had a week to remember, winning the G1 Queensland Derby and the G2 Brisbane Cup, both at Doomben. He gains 5pts and rises four places to #42. The 31-year-old has reached a career-high ranking.
Waller closes on Weir
The battle for Australia’s #1 trainer ranking continues. This time it was former word #1 Chris Waller (+4pts, stays #7) who struck, closing the gap on Darren Weir (-2pts, #5 from #3) by 6pts to 20pts with a Group-race treble at Doomben, including the G1 J. J. Atkins Plate on The Autumn Sun. Three different jockeys were involved in Waller’s haul.
Another big leap for Alduino
Alduino Botti (+15pts, #92 from #158) continued his fine run in Italy. Following a training double on May 20, he was at it again, winning a pair of G3s on Sunday’s card at San Siro. Botti, 69, has been champion trainer in Italy (with his elder brother, Giuseppe) more than 30 times, but much of his success came before TRC Global Rankings began tracking results in 2014.
Click here for a list of all last week’s biggest TRC Global Rankings points gainers.
Click here for a list of all the week’s Group and Graded winners.