The Ten Greatest Racehorses Of All Time

The number is 147. That is the Timeform rating Frankel received after his final start — the highest official rating ever assigned to a racehorse. He was unbeaten in fourteen starts. He won the 2000 Guineas by six lengths. He won the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in what many observers considered the greatest performance ever seen on a British racecourse. He never came close to being beaten. Trained by Sir Henry Cecil in the final chapter of a brilliant career, Frankel was so far superior to his contemporaries that entire fields were entered knowing they could not win. He leads this list because no horse in history has combined perfection of record with the highest measured rating. The debate starts at number two.

The Belmont Stakes time of 2:24.0 set in 1973 still stands. The margin of 31 lengths still stands. His final quarter-mile split in the Belmont — 23.4 seconds — was faster than his first. Secretariat did not slow down at the end of a mile and a half. He accelerated. No physiologist has satisfactorily explained how. He sits at number two rather than one because his career included four defeats and Frankel’s did not. But the argument for Secretariat at number one is the strongest counter-argument in this list, and it will be made loudly by a significant number of fans.

Winx did something Frankel and Secretariat did not: she kept winning for six years. Forty-three consecutive victories. Thirty-three at Group 1 level. Four Cox Plates. Trainers designed their seasons around not having to face her. In the end, the Australian racing calendar bent itself around one mare. She did not race internationally, which is the primary argument against a higher placement. But the sheer weight of her record — sustained across more starts and more seasons than any other horse on this list — is an argument of its own.

Twenty-five starts, twenty-five wins. Peter Moody never tested her beyond 1200 metres — not because she could not stay, but because there was no need. She won the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2012, the only time she raced outside Australia, against horses she had never seen, on a track she did not know. She won. She ranks above Phar Lap on this list because her perfect record is a factual statement rather than a historical argument.

Phar Lap won the 1930 Melbourne Cup carrying 9st 12lb — a weight handicap designed specifically to stop him. It did not. He then crossed the Pacific to race in America and won the Agua Caliente Handicap in Mexico on his first start in the northern hemisphere, at a distance he had rarely contested, against horses he had never faced. He died six weeks later under circumstances that remain disputed. He sits at five rather than higher because his era predates reliable international comparison. He sits on this list because he belongs on any serious list of the world’s greatest racehorses.

Japan’s most beloved racehorse won the 2005 Triple Crown and became the most influential sire in Japanese racing history. His career was briefly clouded by a positive test in France — he was disqualified from his Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe placing — but his Japanese record is beyond dispute. He finished his career rated among the best horses in the world and went on to transform Japanese bloodstock. He ranks sixth because his international record was limited. He is on this list because Japanese racing is serious racing.

Six starts, six wins. Flightline retired after the 2022 Breeders Cup Classic, which he won by 8.5 lengths at odds-on in a field that included the best dirt horses in the world. The winning margin was the largest in the race’s modern history. He ranks seventh rather than higher for a simple reason: six starts is not enough. His ceiling is genuinely unknown — which is, in its own way, an argument for him. He is the most exciting prospect never fully tested. The argument about where he would have finished is the most interesting unanswered question in recent racing.

Named World Horse of the Year for 2023, Equinox won the Japan Cup, the Tenno Sho and the Dubai Sheema Classic — a rare combination of domestic dominance and international credibility. He represents the modern Japanese racing programme at its best: horses bred and trained to compete globally, not just locally. He ranks eighth because his career was shorter than most on this list and his international record, while solid, was not sustained long enough to rank higher.

Romantic Warrior is the argument for longevity. Nine Group 1 wins in Hong Kong and internationally, sustained across four seasons of racing against increasingly strong competition. He has won the Hong Kong Cup, the Champions Mile and competed at the highest level in Japan and Dubai. He is still racing. His position at ninth reflects where he stands today — if his career continues at the same level, this ranking should be revisited.

Twenty starts, twenty wins. Ka Ying Rising holds the Sha Tin 1200 metre track record and has produced a second acceleration in the final 200 metres of a sprint race that most horses are physically incapable of. She is tenth on this list rather than higher because her career is still developing and she has not yet been tested outside Hong Kong at the highest level. She is on this list because an unbeaten sprinter producing times that have never been seen at Sha Tin belongs in any serious conversation about greatness. Ask us again in twelve months.