Despite Timeform having been a leading authority domestically on all things timewise since its inception in 1948, that question is not an easy one to answer. Even as recently as the 1990s, international competition was something of a rarity (the first Dubai World Cup wasn’t staged until 1996) since when increasingly valuable targets worldwide have sprung up with regularity and prospective options for the better European horses, not least those aged three or older, are far wider than they once were. Timeform don’t return timefigures for any jurisdictions other than Britain or Ireland, and while the best of those achieved by the top horses at home were up to scratch, there are other metrics we can call on to evaluate the merits of the best horses overseas, many of whom feature in these awards.
What then can we say about Timeform’s Horse of The Year, the Japanese-trained Equinox? He might not have retired undefeated with a perfect ten from ten, as he was beaten twice in his three-year-old season, firstly in the Japanese 2000 Guineas and then in the Japanese Derby when drawn in the outside stall both times, but he got back to winning ways in the Tenno Sho (Autumn) that year and immediately took his form to a new level in 2023, landing the odds in the Sheema Dubai Classic on his first start of the year by three and a half lengths from subsequent Group 1 winners Westover, Zagrey and Mostahdaf after running easily the fastest penultimate 200m. Equinox didn’t run the fastest final 600m in his next win, the Takarazuka Kinen – that honour went to the subsequent Arc fourth Through Seven Seas – and neither did he when becoming just the third horse to win the Tenno Sho (Autumn) in successive years but that’s hardly surprising given he stalked a ridiculously fast early pace in which the first 1000m was covered in 57.7 seconds and the course record was smashed by nearly a second.
Equinox saved his best for last in the Japan Cup, however, never looking in any danger and ran the last 600m much faster than any of his rivals under just hand riding to beat the Japanese 1000 Guineas and Oaks winner Liberty Island by four lengths. If Japan had a horse to end their Arc jinx it would surely have been Equinox but at least he went out with a performance that his rider Christophe Lemaire called ‘perfection’.
Who stood out on European soil?
So, who was it in the older horse division domestically that put up the best performance on the clock? None other than Sheema Classic second Westover(129) who was beaten a head by Hukum (128) after a mighty battle in the King George at Ascot but emerges the slightly better horse on time after weight-for-age is factored in.
Westover had earlier won the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud from his old Sheema rival Zagrey and was a model of consistency in his third season racing, finishing second on his other starts to Emily Upjohn in the Coronation Cup and Ace Impact in the Arc after which he was retired having picked up an injury. Zagrey went on to win the Grosser Preis von Baden while Mostahdaf, perhaps the horse who paid most for taking on Equinox at Meydan, ran a 122 timefigure (124 once sectional upgrades are included) when winning the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Ascot from Luxembourg then went close to repeating that figure when running a 121 (122 overall) to see off Nashwa in the International at York.
Luxembourg improved his 114 timefigure in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes to 123 in the Irish Champion Stakes in September while Queen Anne winner Triple Time was the only other older male to record a timefigure higher than 122, running a 123 in the Queen Anne Stakes on his seasonal reappearance.
Second in that Queen Anne, of course, had been Inspiral who came from a long way back to post a 119 which remains a career best, though the news she stays in training means she might yet climb higher. Heavy ground saw her well beaten in the Sussex Stakes, but she won her remaining three races, all of them Group 1s, including the Prix Jacques le Marois for the second successive year and the Breeders’ Cup Filly Mare Turf where she successfully stretched out to a mile and a quarter and blistered home in a remarkable 10.75 final furlong.
Inspiral’s stablemate Emily Upjohn also recorded a career best timefigure in the aforementioned Coronation Cup, her rider blindsiding Westover at the top of the straight before going on to score impressively in 114, but she improved on that next time out when posting a 118 behind Paddington in the Eclipse and even emerged the better horse by 2lb once sectional upgrades are incorporated. She wasn’t seen after August, making none of the late-season targets she was supposed to contest, so we may have seen the last of her. Highfield Princess wasn’t quite the force she had been in 2022 but was still top class on her day and was the only older female to post a bare timefigure greater than 120, running a 121 in the Duke of York Clipper Stakes at York.
Impact will be missed in 2024
Unlike Equinox, who dominated his division all year long, Ace Impact didn’t seal his position as Timeform’s top-three-year-old, a battle he had been contesting all summer along with the Aidan O’Brien-trained pair Paddington and Auguste Rodin, until late in the year and even then had to stave off an audacious late bid from his compatriot Big Rock who won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes twenty days after the Arc by six lengths.
As with Japan, Timeform don’t return timefigures for racing in France, but all the six races Ace Impact won were covered by exhaustive tracking data. He’d been reportedly been ready to run in the summer of 2022 but didn’t make his debut until January at Cagnes-sur-Mer where he was the only winner on the card to run the last 200m in under 11 seconds in an impressive debut. Wins at Bordeaux and Chantilly followed, the latter in a listed race, but it wasn’t until the Prix Jockey-Club in June that he revealed his full merit, only eighth rounding the final bend before thundering through the final 600m over a second faster than any of his rivals (Big Rock was three and a half lengths back in second) on his way to a track record.
Ace Impact didn’t convince everyone with his winning return at Deauville in the Prix Guillaume D’Ornano but as in all his previous wins ran the fastest last 600m and his trainer Jean-Claude Rouget was unperturbed, stating it was only a preparation for the Arc. How right he was, Ace Impact becoming the first three-year-old since Enable in 2017 to win the race, held up well off the pace despite the ground being faster than usual before unleashing his by-now trademark late burst, running the final 600m faster than all apart from Onesto who’d made his effort from much further back and, on the basis of that finishing split, more superior to Westover than the official result suggests. What a shame he’s been retired so soon to stud in France.
Auguste ends bumpy road on a high
Other than Equinox, one of the 2023 stars missing from the Arc was his compatriot Auguste Rodin who thankfully is staying in training and looks sure to add to his haul of five Group or Grade 1 wins, four of which were achieved in 2023. Bouncing back from a flop in the 2000 Guineas, he won the Derby by half a length from King Of Steel in a 118 timefigure, upgraded to 123 after sectionals are included, made the most of a straightforward task in the Irish Derby (timefigure 100) and then bounced back from anther flop, this time in the King George at Ascot, to win the Irish Champion Stakes in a smart 124 timefigure before ending the season on a high in the Breeders’ Cup Turf when he ran easily the fastest last two furlongs.
Despite a pedigree that suggested a mile and a half would be no problem, Paddington never raced beyond a mile and a quarter and it’s perhaps a surprise he climbed the ranks as high as he did having gained gaining his first win in a handicap off an official mark of 97. Nonetheless, five wins followed, including the Irish 2000 Guineas, the St James Palace Stakes, Eclipse and the Sussex Stakes. From a headline timefigure perspective, his ready St James’s Place defeat of 2000 Guineas winner Chaldean took pride of place, coming in at 125 before a 4lb upgrade is applied, though a 9lb upgrade for his Eclipse win over Emily Upjohn also takes that overall timerating to 129.
He lost little in defeat in the International at York but ended his season on a low note behind Big Rock in the Queen Elizabeth II whose 131 timefigure after a powerful front-running performance made not only Paddington but plenty of other high-class horses too look ordinary. Paddington has been retired but the good news is that Big Rock will be around next year.
Best of the three-year-old fillies on the clock were Mawj, Tahiyra and Warm Heart who won seven Group or Grade 1s between them. Little separated Mawj and Tahiyra at the end of a well-run 1000 Guineas, the former edging out her Irish-trained rival in a 119 timefigure, but whereas Tahiyra went on to win three times at the top level Mawj missed the summer after being sidelined. A comeback win in the Queen Elizabeth II at Keeneland showed she was as good as ever and she was unlucky not to follow up in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, nailed on the line by Master Of The Seas after being kept too close to a very strong pace. In her absence, Tahiyra won the Irish 1000 in a 111 timefigure as well as the Matron Stakes in 118 before becoming another of those on Big Rock’s heavily-notched bedpost in the Queen Eliabeth II. Warm Heart spent her time between a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half registering her best figure in the Yorkshire Oaks which was also worth a bare 118 but 120 overall.
Troy story only just beginning
Timeform’s top two-year-old isn’t usually decided until autumn but it had been clear as early as the Newmarket July meeting that it would take an exceptional youngster to topple City Of Troy. He’d made a sparkling debut two weeks previously at the Curragh but surpassed even that in the Superlative Stakes over the same seven-furlong distance to such an extent that the 117 timefigure he was credited with was the highest recorded by a juvenile at the trip this century so early in the year.
City of Troy was seen only once again after the Superlative but made an even deeper impression in the Dewhurst. Other horses might have run faster Dewhurst winning times this century while Frankel is among a select quartet who have posted higher headline timefigures but City Of Troy’s three-and-a-half length winning margin was the biggest in the race since 1997 and his 115 timefigure comes in at 125 once a 10lb sectional upgrade after running the fastest final three furlongs of the day is incorporated. It’s hardly surprising he’s such a short-priced favourite for the 2000 Guineas.
Should anything go amiss with City Of Troy his trainer Aidan O’Brien has a more-than-adequate deputy in the shape of Henry Longfellow, the second foal of the seven-time Group 1 winner Minding and who, like City Of Troy, is unbeaten in three races at seven furlongs. He wasn’t quite as flashy either visually or on the clock, posting a best timefigure of 109, upgraded marginally to 110, in the National Stakes in September on his final start, but the horse he beat that day, for the second race in succession, Islandsinthestream ended the season narrowly touched off in a Group 1 in France so his credentials look solid for all he looked more of a stayer than his stable-companion.
Vandeek was also unbeaten, taking in four races as opposed to the previous pair’s three. He arrived on the racecourse with a big reputation, having been the joint highest-priced lot at the Craven Breeze-Up Sale (the other, Ocean Runner, has already been gelded after two inauspicious starts) but soon showed why, winning the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood second time out in a 107 timefigure before going onto take the Prix Morny at Deauville, outstaying the good French filly Ramatuelle, and the Middle Park in a 105 timefigure worth a minimum of 107 after sectionals are included given he scored with plenty in hand. He’s plenty about him physically and looks obvious Commonwealth Cup material.
Other two-year-olds colts worth a mention on the clock are Ancient Wisdom, Ghostwriter, Dancing Gemini, Beauvatier and Fallen Angel. Ancient Wisdom won four out of five races, including a messily-run Futurity at Doncaster, but given a stronger gallop he looked a powerful if round-actioned stayer who won the Autumn Stakes in a 115 timefigure. Ancient Wisdom suffered his only defeat behind Rosallion in the mid-season Pat Eddery Stakes at Ascot, a race in which the winner posted a 109 timefigure and in which Dancing Gemini finished fifth. Rosallion suffered a surprising reverse on his next start in the Champagne at Doncaster but he made amends in great style in the Jean-Luc Lagadere on Arc weekend when running both the last two 200m sections in well under 11 seconds proving better suited to the very fast conditions than the home-trained favourite Beauvatier.
Dancing Gemini won the Flying Scotsman at Doncaster in a smart 115 timefigure before looking unsuited by the heavy conditions in the Futurity. Unbeaten Ghostwriter ended the season with a ready win in the Royal Lodge which he took in a 110 timefigure and he looks a player in the 2000 Guineas. Moyglare Stud winner Fallen Angel, Cheveley Park winner Porta Fortuna and Fillies Mile winner Ylang Ylang share the honours among the fillies with each having posted a 107, Porta Fortuna just edging the honours after upgrades (hers being 3lb, taking her overall time rating to 110) are included.
Timeform Award winners:
Horse of the Year*
1. Equinox
2. Ace Impact
3. Auguste Rodin
*Determined by vote among Timeform editorial staff
Leading 2-y-o**
1. City of Troy – 125p
2. Henry Longfellow – 120p
3. Vandeek – 119p
**Europe only
Leading Male 3-y-o+
1. Equinox – 136
2. Ace Impact – 133
3. Westover – 131
Leading Female 3-y-o+
1. Emily Upjohn – 126
2. Inspiral – 125
3=Through Seven Seas – 124
3=Liberty Island – 124
3= Imperatriz – 124
Champion of the Rest of the World
1. Equinox – 136
2. Golden Sixty – 129
2=Cody’s Wish – 129
Champion of Europe
1. Ace Impact – 133
2. Westover – 131
3. Hukum – 130
First-season sire***
1. Too Darn Hot (99)
2. Blue Point (96)
3. Calyx (93)
3= Ten Sovereigns (93)
***Based on average Timeform master rating of top 10 progeny (need to have had a minimum of ten runners in Britain or Ireland).
Race of the Year
1. Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (130)
2. Tenno Sho (Autumn) (129)
2= Dubai Sheema Classic (129)
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