Only Japanese ace Equinox stands between Mostahdaf and the world #1 spot after the five-year-old ended Paddington’s winning streak in last week’s Juddmonte International at York.
Trained by John & Thady Gosden for the Shadwell operation, Mostahdaf shot up Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s Global Rankings to claim the #2 spot (from #10, +187pt) with his one-length victory over star filly Nashwa under a canny front-running effort from Frankie Dettori.
Although the son of Frankel won six of his first seven career starts, it is only this season that he has really blossomed at the top level, his credentials having been firmly stated at Royal Ascot with a four-length success in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
“Mostahdaf is a proper horse and he's won that in a proper time,” said trainer John Gosden after his victory in the £1m event at York.
“He won from the back at Ascot and from the front here and he's getting better with age,” Gosden added. “He handles good to soft but his ideal is summer racing ground. I wouldn't take him to the Arc if it's going to be soft ground and the Irish Champion might be a possibility.”
Prior to his two G1 successes this term, Mostahdaf was fourth to world #1 Equinox in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan. Now set for a Japan Cup campaign this autumn, Equinox has now spent 23 weeks at the top of the rankings.
“I’ve always thought Mostahdaf was a very good horse, but when he won the Neom Cup that was electric,” added Gosden. “We then stupidly tried him over a mile and a half again against the Japanese world champion and got put in our box, but I think it will be 10 furlongs all the way now.”
Paddington, meanwhile, slips down a notch to #4 (from #3, -21pt) after being beaten into third as odds-on favourite for the Juddmonte International, in which he was chasing his fifth G1 win in a row. “Maybe it was a race too much for him,” said world #1 trainer Aidan O’Brien. “Maybe I pulled the elastic band too long.
“Maybe I should have waited and gone to Leopardstown, give him a little more time to recover. He is only a baby three-year-old. Ryan felt he was just a little bit flat but he still ran a good race. He definitely won’t go to the Irish Champion.”
In North America, Arcangelo (#11 from #71, +246pt) is clear leader among the Classic generation after adding the Travers Stakes to his Belmont Stakes victory. The second highest-ranked US three-year-old is Forte (#32 from #12, -98), who goes tumbling down the charts after a lacklustre effort at Saratoga.
Other big movers Stateside are headed by the all-the-way Ballerina Stakes heroine Echo Zulu (#15 from 42, +108pt) and Gunite (#16 from #128, +293pt), who finally overcame Breeders’ Cup champ Elite Power (#3 from #4, +8) in the G1 Forego. In receipt of 6lbm Gunite beat his old rival by a length and three-quarters.
• Unlike traditional methods of racehorse rankings, TRC Global Rankings are a measure of an individual’s level of achievement over a rolling three-year period, providing a principled hierarchy of the leading horses, jockeys, trainers, owners and sires using statistical learning techniques. Racehorse rankings can be compared to similar exercises in other sports, like the golf’s world rankings or the ATP rankings in tennis.
They are formulated from the last three years of races we consider Group or Graded class all over the world and update automatically each week according to the quality of a horse’s performances and their recency, taking into account how races work out.
View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires