world’s best racehorse rankings Knicks Go, ridden by Joel Rosario, wins the 2020 running of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, one of five Grade 1 successes for the son of Paynter
Top
of the world
Knicks Go, the son of Paynter and new Taylor Made stallion, is rated the world’s best horse for 2021, writes Aisling Crowe
T
HE 2021 WORLD’S BEST RACEHORSE rankings were truly an international affair with Knicks Go annointed the best in the world by 2lb ahead of Adayar, Mishriff and St Mark’s Basilica all on 127. Knicks Go was rated 5lb higher than Life Is Good, but whether those ratings would stand in the wake of the latter’s astonishing victory over the now-retired champion in the Pegasus World Cup is moot. Knicks Go was the best horse in the world last year, Life Is Good is the world’s best horse so far this year. In 24 starts the now six-year-old son of Paynter did more than enough to justify his lofty status as the best racehorse in the world, with five Grade 1 triumphs from two to five, including victories in two different Breeders’ Cup contests. Bred in Maryland by Angie Moore and her daughter Sabrina, Knicks Go is from the second crop of Paynter and is so far the only top level winner by the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational winner. Paynter is a son of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Awesome Again, and is very closely related to that stallion’s Preakness-winning
62
www.internationalthoroughbred.net
son Oxbow, who is out of a full-sister to Paynter’s dam Tizso. She is also a full-sister to the dual Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner and stallion Tiznow, who is the sire of Tourist and Midnight Bourbon and broodmare sire of Tiz The Law. Oxbow himself is the sire of Grade 1 winner Hot Rod Charlie, who earned a rating of 122 and a spot in the upper echelons of the rankings. The Pennsylvania Derby winner, who was fourth to Knicks Go in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, remains in training at four with the Dubai World Cup an early season target, which could set him up for a tilt at the coveted title of world’s best racehorse in 2022. Knicks Go is another star to give lie to the belief that expensive horses are necessarily the best – he was bought for just $40,000 as a foal and slightly more than doubled that when selling for $87,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale to the Korea Racing Authority. He was scheduled to sell at the Ocala Breeze-Up, but was withdrawn and sent into training with Ben Colebrook. At two he ran six times and was one of the best juveniles of 2018, winning the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland
