Image source, Getty Images
Pinatubo has been given an official rating above the legendary Frankel at the same age and the highest for a juvenile racehorse in Europe for 25 years.
The horse, trained in Newmarket by Charlie Appleby for owners Godolphin, earned a rating of 128 at the end of his campaign as a two-year-old.
That is the highest since Celtic Swing (1994) and Arazi (1991) were rated 130.
Frankel was 126 after his races aged two, but later rose to 140.
Pinatubo was officially recognised on Wednesday as the European champion two-year-old of 2019 after six successive wins – by a total of 24 lengths – culminating in the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket.
The rating puts him 10lb clear of his nearest rivals Earthlight and Kameko.
Graeme Smith, the British Horseracing Authority’s lead two-year-old handicapper, said: “Pinatubo looked a potentially outstanding two-year-old when thrashing a competitive field in the Vintage Stakes.
“His next performance in the National Stakes was breathtaking – the kind you rarely see in top company – as he powered nine lengths clear of Armory and Arizona in a top-class time.
“This was one of the great two-year-old performances, and the best by any two-year-old in the last 25 years.”
Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Waldgeist. runner-up Enable and Crystal Ocean were co-winners of the Longines World’s Best Racehorse later in the day.
Highest-rated champion two-year-olds since 1988
130 – Arazi (1991), Celtic Swing (1994)
126 – Xaar, Alhaarth, Dream Ahead, Frankel, Hector Protector. Johannesburg, New Approach, Too Darn Hot
‘Like his name, he erupted’
BBC racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght
The officials who come up with these ratings are famously feet-on-the-ground merchants and for Graeme Smith to describe one performance as ‘breathtaking’ is quite something.
But it was, at the Curragh in September: you had to think how appropriate that the colt is named after a volcano (in the Philippines) because he positively erupted a quarter-mile from the finish and galloped nine scintillating lengths ahead.
So he’s rated better than Frankel at the same stage – now we need proof that he can sustain this level in 2020, but so far he’s looking every inch flat racing’s next superstar.