California Chrome ranked second on World’s Best Racehorse list

California Chrome, the 2016 Dubai World Cup winner, has been moved up two pounds on the World’s Best Racehorse list due to his recent victory in the San Diego Handicap at Del Mar, but he remains ranked below A Shin Hikari, the Japanese horse who won the Prix d’Ispahan at Chantilly, France, in May.

The 128-pound rating for California Chrome’s San Diego performance leaves the 5-year-old colt in sole possession of second place on the list, which is compiled by European handicappers and is based on a horse’s best performance of the calendar year.

The system for ranking the horses on a single race differs considerably from informal listings compiled by U.S. racing experts, where the sum total of a horse’s races during the year is given much more weight in determining its ranking. Since winning the Prix d’Ispahan, A Shin Hikari finished last in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes in England.

California Chrome is weighted two pounds higher than Frosted, the runaway winner of the Met Mile and the Aug. 6 Whitney Stakes. The World’s Best Racehorse rankings include races run this year through Aug. 7.

Winx, an Australian mare, is ranked between California Chrome and Frosted at 127 pounds off a well-regarded win in the Doncaster Mile in April at Royal Randwick in Australia. She is expected to start Aug. 20 at Royal Randwick in the Warwick Stakes.