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Knicks Go, the son of Paynter and new Taylor Made stallion, is rated the world’s best horse for 2021, writes Aisling Crowe

THE 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 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.

He then 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He was scheduled to sell at the Ocala Breeze-Up, but was withdrawn and sent into training with Ben Colebrook.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 and finishing second to Game Winner in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G2). He also won a maiden special weight and was third in the Listed Arlington Washington Futurity.

His career took a dip at three when he failed to win in eight starts and he was transferred to the barn of Brad Cox for his four-year-old season. The move reinvigorated the classy juvenile who then went through the year undefeated and returned with a bang to Grade 1 company in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, in which he earned his second top-class success.

Knicks Go carried that form into his fourth season of racing in 2021 – he started the year with victory in the Pegasus World Cup then travelled to Riyadh for the Saudi Cup in which he finished fourth behind Mishriff.

Back in the US, Knicks Go reappeared in the Metropolitan Handicap and was once again fourth and then was dropped down to Grade 3 company for a 1m1f handicap, which saw him return in the winner’s spot.

After that he was an impressive 5l winner of the Whitney Stakes (G1) over a field that included Swiss Skydiver and Maxfield and then added the Grade 3 Lukas Classic Stakes. He contested his third different race at the Breeders’ Cup meeting, this time taking on the Classic and he put in the best performance of his career to easily account for the ill-fated Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, Essential Quality and Hot Rod Charlie.

His final start came behind the awesome Life Is Good in the 2022 Pegasus World Cup and he has now taken up stallion duties at Taylor Made Farm.

Knicks Go is an important horse for the Korea Racing Authority as he is the first American Grade 1 winner for the operation and could be a potential foundation stallion for the KRA should they develop previously expressed thoughts of opening a stud farm in Kentucky.

Having the world’s best racehorse to launch any overseas stallion operation would be a massive boon and enormous incentive for them to develop that prospect.

Knicks Go’s dam Kosmo’s Buddy was a stakes-winning sprinter and she is by Outflanker, a Danzig half-brother to Love Me True, the dam of Group 1 winners and sires Duke Of Marmalade and Ruler Of The World. Their dam Lassie’s Lady is an Alydar half-sister to Wolfhound and Foxhound, and to Weekend Surprise dam of the great A.P. Indy.

The grey six-year-old is by far the best horse in the first three generations of his female line – second dam Vaulted is by the Mr. Prospector son Allen’s Prospect and was stakes-placed. Vaulted is a half-sister to the dams of Listed winner Sweet Cassiopeia and the Grade 2-placed Yaletown. His third dam Aube D’Or is a Medaille D’Or half-sister to Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes winner Countus In.

As a stallion prospect Knicks Go is very interesting with three lines of Raise A Native in his pedigree with two of them coming from Mr. Prospector and the other from Alydar.

He also traces back to Bold Reasoning through Triple Crown legends Secretariat and Seattle Slew, who both feature in the fifth generation of the pedigree of Knicks Go.

In many ways Knicks Go is everything a racehorse should be – his initial Grade 1 success was a surprise but, by backing it up with that first Breeders’ Cup performance, he proved that he was a talented individual.

He was no flash in the pan either – he returned from a disappointing second season to become a Grade 1 winner again at four and then developed into the best horse in the world at five, adding a second Breeders’ Cup victory at a longer distance.

Horses are supposed to get stronger and better as they grow and develop, which is something that Knicks Go was allowed the time and space to do, and he flourished.

A little piece of trivia about Knicks Go to end on; he is not actually named in honour of the New York basketball team as is widely believed, but after a nicking programme that the KRA uses to identify potential sales purchases and stallion recruits.

Knicks Go was put in place on his last career start finishing behind the new US superstar Life Is Good (Into Mischief) in the Pegasus World Cup