Gun Runner, Winx still on top in world ratings

Gun Runner and Winx, both rated 129, once again top the latest edition of the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings.

The most recent update of the rankings, released Tuesday after the latest convening of an International Federation of Horseracing Authorities’ committee, has the same top three as the last edition, but while Gun Runner has been retired to stud, Winx is back in action again this weekend in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick Racecourse in Australia.

West Coast remains the highest-rated American horse still in training at 124, but he did nothing to improve his rating when soundly defeated in the Dubai World Cup by Thunder Snow, who appears in the new rankings with a rating of 123. Also rated 123 through his performance on the Dubai World Cup card is Benbatl, the Godolphin 4-year-old who won the $6 million Dubai Turf to cap a strong winter campaign.

The committee has Mendelssohn the world’s highest-rated 3-year-old at 122 on the strength of his 18 1/2 -length victory over the group-stakes-winning filly Rayya in the Group 2, $2 million UAE Derby. Mendelssohn is headed to the Kentucky Derby where he’ll meet the Derby favorite Justify, who is rated at 120 after beating Bolt d’Oro in the Santa Anita Derby, his stakes debut. No other 3-year-old is rated 119 or higher by the IFHA committee.

Army Mule makes his first appearance in the rankings with a rating of 121 after his scintillating score in the Grade 1 Carter last weekend at Aqueduct.