WITH a rating of 130, Calandagan became the second French-trained horse to top the World Rankings since ratings on both sides of the equator were combined in 2008.

Waldgeist was the last French horse to top the tables, though he shared the honour with Crystal Ocean and Enable with a rating of 128. The latest champion finished 2lb clear of his rivals, and his participation in the Champion Stakes at Ascot and Japan Cup contributed to their matching ratings of 126.25, the highest of any race in 2025.

Trips to Dubai and Japan bookended an incredible season for the Aga Khan Studs’ home-bred, who ended the year with four consecutive Group 1 victories. A four-year-old in 2025, the Gleneagles gelding was one of five older horses to feature in the top 10 horses overall, with Forever Young, Ka Ying Rising and Ombudsman the eldest of five sharing runners-up honours.

As in 2024, Forever Young enjoyed an international campaign in 2025, and the Yoshito Yahagi-trained entire was rewarded with top-flight wins in the Saudi Cup and Breeders’ Cup Classic. On those occasions, he was chased home by Romantic Warrior and Sierra Leone respectively, with both rivals sharing third in the overall standings with the three-year-old Daryz at a rating of 127.

Hong Kong bullet Ka Ying Rising made his first trip abroad in 2025, and made it a winning one in the Everest at Randwick. It was one of five Group 1 wins for David Hayes’ gelding in an unbeaten campaign, which saw his rating rise to 128 - the highest in history for a Hong Kong horse.

He finished 8lb clear of his nearest rivals in the sprint division, with then four-year-olds Book’em Danno and Lazzat regarded equal at 120, after a single top-flight win each in 2025.

Australia

Australian horses were notably absent from the top 10 overall, with Tony Gollan’s Doomben Cup winner Antino and Chris Waller’s superstar Via Sistina the highest rated in the country at 120. The recently-retired mare was the highest-rated of the older fillies and mares alongside Kalpana.

While there has been plenty of debate as to whether geldings should or shouldn’t be excluded from certain top-flight contests, there is an undivided appreciation for the continued presence of Calandagan in 2026, if not later.

One hopes that Godolphin are rewarded for keeping Ombudsman in training as a five-year-old in 2026, when he could have retired as the joint second highest-rated horse of 2025. Their decision was undoubtedly influenced by his rapid progression from a listed and Group 3-winning three-year-old to a dual Group 1-winning four-year-old.

Godolphin took the staying category with home-bred Trawlerman, winner of the Ascot Gold Cup and Long Distance Cup as a seven-year-old. Rated 120, he finished just 1lb ahead of Joseph O’Brien’s Irish St Leger victor Al Riffa. The Aidan O’Brien-trained Jan Brueghel ran just three times in 2025, but made his presence felt as one of just two Irish horses in the top 10, his rating of 125 matched by three-year-old stablemate Delacroix. By the late, great Galileo, Jan Brueghel’s best performance coming in the Coronation Cup, in which he rallied to beat Calandagan by half a length.