Calandagan’s win in the Champion Stakes at Ascot in October has earned him the title of the world’s best racehorse, but his victory in the Japan Cup a month later ensured that the Japan Racing Association’s (JRA) flagship international contest was ranked its equal.
The Japan Cup was rated the world’s top race for the second time in three years, while the Champion Stakes earned the distinction for the first time.
Francis-Henri Graffard trained Calandagan through an impeccable four-year-old campaign that also saw the gelding win Europe’s great mid-summer weight-for-age feature, the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, as well as the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.
The Aga Khan Studs homebred earned an end-of-year rating of 130. That made him the first gelding to top the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) annual world’s best racehorse rankings, but the rating left him one point lower than another brilliant French gelding from the past, Cirrus Des Aigles.
A panel of international handicappers rated Calandagan two pounds superior to five horses who all shared second place in the final list: Hong Kong’s exceptional sprinter Ka Ying Rising, Japan’s first G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Forever Young, the G1 Kentucky Derby hero Sovereignty, Japan Cup runner-up Masquerade Ball, and the 10-furlong specialist Ombudsman.
Ka Ying Rising – now officially the world’s best sprinter according to rating – became the highest-rated horse ever trained in Hong Kong. And his mark of 128 has him rated two pounds behind the great Australian sprinter Black Caviar’s peak rating of 130, which ranked her as the world’s best in a tie with another exceptional mare, Treve, in 2013. But Ka Ying Rising’s peak figure is equal to Japan’s greatest sprinter, the incredible Lord Kanaloa, who ranked fifth in that 2013 list.
Black Caviar was also rated 130 when equal third in 2012 in a year that saw the peerless Frankel post a 140 rating, with Cirrus Des Aigles second on his career-best mark of 131.
Calandagan topping the rankings emulated Japan’s Equinox who was also crowned the world’s best for the year in which he won the Japan Cup. His end of year rating was 135.
The Japan Cup and the Champion Stakes both achieved a rating of 126.5, based on the ratings of the first four finishers. ∎
2025 LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings
| RANKING | HORSE | RATING | TRAINER | TRAINED |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CALANDAGAN (IRE) | 130 | Francis-Henri Graffard | FR |
| 2 | FOREVER YOUNG (JPN) | 128 | Yoshito Yahagi | JPN |
| 2 | KA YING RISING (NZ) | 128 | David Hayes | HK |
| 2 | MASQUERADE BALL (JPN) | 128 | Takahisa Tezuka | JPN |
| 2 | OMBUDSMAN (IRE) | 128 | John & Thady Gosden | GB |
| 2 | SOVEREIGNTY (USA) | 128 | William Mott | USA |
| 7 | DARYZ (FR) | 127 | Francis-Henri Graffard | FR |
| 7 | ROMANTIC WARRIOR (IRE) | 127 | Danny Shum | HK |
| 7 | SIERRA LEONE (USA) | 127 | Chad Brown | USA |
