It was seven months ago that we last updated our list of the world’s top 20 all-time highest-earning Thoroughbred racehorses. You haven’t missed much since, though - it’s been the wrong time of year. There’s been some fabulous racing, of course, but very little of it has had much impact on these standings.
Indeed, until the last few days, only two runners in the 20 we published on April 2 were still in training. Both the former Hong Kong Horse of the Year Exultant and current world #6 Mishriff have added to their career totals in the last few months (Mishriff by close to £1 million, highlighted by a commanding performance in the G1 Juddmonte International at York in August). He is now 9th in the table, and Exultant’s placed efforts in Hong Kong have been enough to keep the admirable 7-year-old, now retired, clinging on to 20th spot.
As you might have expected, there was some activity in the chart this weekend - although it had nothing to do with the Breeders’ Cup. For all the mighty career totals being handsomely supplemented by Knicks Go and Loves Only You, the sole new addition to the top 20 is the Aussie sprinter Nature Strip.
The Chris Waller-trained 7-year-old, TRC’s highest-ranked sprinter on the planet, had in fact already ascended to 19th after winning the world’s richest turf race, the AU$15 million Everest at Randwick, three weeks ago. His easy win under world #1 jockey James McDonald at Flemington on Saturday in the AU$2 million G1 Darley Sprint Classic added plenty to his total earnings, but not enough to rise above 19th place.
WORLD’S LEADING ALL-TIME PRIZE MONEY EARNERS: THE TOP 20
There was a near miss last week as well, although that again had nothing to do with events at Del Mar. It did, however, involve the deadly team of Waller and McDonald once more as they teamed up to win the Melbourne Cup on the incredible mare Verry Elleegant, taking her earnings tally to just over £7.9 million. Trouble is a horse has to be past the £8 million mark to get in the 20 these days (that’s British pounds, not U.S. dollars), and the price is going up all the time. The mares races on in 2022, however, with plenty of ambitious targets on the horizon.
Of course, you can expect a lot more movement in this list over the next few months. The real big paydays in horseracing come between October and April, with virtually all the world’s richest races taking place in that period - at the Arc, the Melbourne Spring Carnival, the Breeders’ Cup, the Japan Cup, the Hong Kong International Races, the Arima Kinen, the Pegasus, the Saudi Cup, the Dubai World Cup and the Championships in Sydney. The old world order has been well and truly turned on its head!
Just a reminder at this point that these earnings updates are merely a record of cash won - we don’t pretend they provide any index of relative ability. It’s just that we think it’s interesting to look at. Our TRC ranking algorithm, on the other hand, totally ignores prize money in its calculations.
It should be noted that the standings most North Americans will be familiar with - those compiled by Equibase - include only horses that raced in North America, even if it was just once, whereas the TRC list includes all horses and all runs worldwide.
Of course, when analysing any list of global leading money-earners, it must be remembered that much depends on what currency is used. Our list was originally compiled by the International Racing Bureau, which is a British company, hence the use of sterling and the official overseas currency exchange rates issued by the British Horseracing Authority in the first week of every January.
It should also be noted, of course, that this list makes no attempt to allow for inflation.