Aidan O’Brien is 9-4 to break his world Group/Grade One record tally this year after US Navy Flag was confirmed as the Irish trainer’s 10th European juvenile champion.
Tuesday’s publication of the 2017 European Thoroughbred Rankings saw US Navy Flag – winner of both the Dewhurst and Middle Park Stakes during a busy 11-race two year old campaign – join a long list of previous O’Brien stars who have topped the juvenile rankings.
For good measure Ballydoyle’s Cheveley Park Stakes winner Clemmie headed the fillies list for 2017 and the huge strength in depth of O’Brien’s classic squad for 2018 is emphasised by him having 15 of the top 45 rated juveniles of 2017.
They include the Racing Post Trophy winner Saxon Warrior whose Doncaster success saw his trainer break Bobby Frankel’s old record of 25 Group/Grade One victories in a calendar year.
Highland Reel’s Hong Kong Vase victory last month saw O’Brien set a new record mark of 28.
The classic potential lurking within the Ballydoyle squad for this year however means the RaceBets firm reckon it’s just 9-4 about him improving that mark in 2018.
“The fact that US Navy Flag and Clemmie were respectively crowned champion two-year-old colt and filly from last year means the omens are terrific for another stellar season for O’Brien in 2018,” said spokesman, Joseph Burke.
“He trains the top two in the betting for the first four British classics of 2018. The top three, and indeed the only horses trading at under 10/1 for the 2000 Guineas, are based in Ballydoyle.
The first three in the market for the 1,000 Guineas (and the only horses trading at less than 14/1) are also trained by O’Brien. Nowhere is his dominance more prevalent however than in the Epsom Derby where five of the first six in the market are in O’Brien’s care,” he added.
Official rating
Despite his career petering out later in the year, the US dirt star Arrogate was officially rated the world’s best racehorses of 2017 on the strength of his spectacular Dubai World Cup victory last March.
That earned Arrogate an official rating of 134 at the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings at a ceremony in London on Tuesday while the Australian turf star Winx was given a mark of 132.
Cracksman was the top rated horse to run in Europe in 2017. Along with the Breeders Cup Classic hero Gun Runner John Gosden’s Champion Stakes winner was allotted a mark of 130, 2lbs ahead of his Arc winning stable companion Enable.
Cracksman finished runner-up to Capri in last summer’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby and Ireland’s premier classic has been judged the highest rated three year old race run anywhere in the world in 2017.
The Matron Stakes won by Hydrangea from her stable companion Winter over ‘Irish Champions Weekend’ was top-rated globally in terms of fillies and mares races.
