THE three-year-old filly Minnie Hauk (123) has been acknowledged as the best female horse in the world in 2025 (on any surface), the first time ever an Irish-trained filly or mare has achieved this accolade in any given year.
While she won three Group 1 races confined to fillies in 2025, her best performance was in a narrow defeat to French three-year-old colt Daryz (127) in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Apart from Minnie Hauk topping the 12-furlong three-year-old filly category, other Irish-trained turf world champions in individual distance categories included her following stablemates:
Delacroix (125): top turf three-year-old colt at 10 furlongs in the world
Whirl (120): top three-year-old filly at 10 furlongs
Scandinavia (118): joint top three-year-old stayer
Lake Victoria (115): joint top three-year-old female miler
Ten of the 13 Group 1 races held in Ireland in 2025 were won by domestically-trained horses and, of these Group 1 races, four of them merited inclusion in the list of top 100 Group 1 races in 2025: Tattersalls Gold Cup (joint 10th), Irish Champion Stakes (joint 16th), Irish 2000 Guineas (joint 60th) and the Pretty Polly (joint 97th), which was also the fourth highest-rated Group 1 race confined to female horses.
Last year also marked the first time since 2009 that Irish-bred horses topped the rankings in both the male and female categories.
In the European Juvenile Classification, stablemates Precise (115) and True Love (115) shared the accolade of joint champion two-year-old filly, the seventh consecutive year that Irish-trained juvenile fillies have achieved this mantle.
Jan Brueghel (125) was the highest-rated older horse in Ireland in 2025 and joint top overall with younger stablemate Delacroix (125).
One would have to go back to Excelebration (130) in 2012 to find a higher rated champion older horse in Ireland. Rated joint champion three-year-old stayer in the world in 2025 (117), he improved markedly to defeat subsequent world champion racehorse Calandagan (130) in winning the Coronation Cup at Epsom in June.
Al Riffa (120) emulated his 2024 level of rating in winning the Irish St Leger at the Curragh in September, while Diego Velazquez (120) exceeded his 119 rating from 2024 when defeating European champion older miler Notable Speech (122) in the Prix Jacques le Marois in Deauville.
There were an unprecedented five individual world three-year-old champions in different distance categories on turf trained in Ireland in 2025.
Minnie Hauk (123) is the highest Irish-trained three-year-old filly since Alpha Centauri (124) in 2018 and second only to Found (124) in 2016 among females trained at Ballydoyle by Aidan O’Brien.
She became the third filly this decade to complete the Epsom Oaks/Irish Oaks double following Snowfall (120) in 2021 and Love (122) in 2020. Minnie Hauk defeated stablemate Whirl (120) at Epsom, but the latter won two Group 1 fillies’ races: the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh, defeating joint top older mare Kalpana (120), but her best performance was in winning the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood in July which made her top filly in the world over 10 furlongs and second only to Minnie Hauk overall.
Delacroix (125) was the top Irish three-year-old colt and the world’s best three-year-old 10-furlong turf horse for winning both the Eclipse at Sandown in July and the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown in September.
Scandinavia (118) was joint top three-year-old stayer in the world and won the St Leger at Doncaster, but his best performance was in beating his older stablemate Illinois (117) in the Goodwood Cup.
Champion European two-year-old filly in 2024, Lake Victoria (115) was joint top three-year-old turf filly miler for her performance in winning the Irish 1000 Guineas impressively.
Lambourn (120) became the eighth colt this century to do the Epsom/Irish Derby double, but is the lowest rated of those, just behind Harzand (121) in 2016.
See ihrb.ie/thoroughbred-rankings-homepage/ for Irish, European and World Rankings from 2025 and past years, enabling historical comparisons.