Equinox's lofty Timeform rating of 136 marked him out as highest-rated horse in the world and earned him the Leading Male 3YO+ title.
WINNER: EQUINOX (Timeform rating 136)
Click here to read Equinox's profile
RUNNER-UP: ACE IMPACT (133)
Pedigree Details
Sire: Cracksman
Dam: Absolutly Me
Dam’s sire: Anabaa Blue
Breeder: Mme Waltraut Spanner
Foaled: February 13, 2020
2023 Race Record & Fact file
Races: 6
Wins: 6
Major wins: Prix du Jockey Club, Prix Guillaume d’Ornano, Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe
Owner: Ecuries Serge Stempniak/Gousserie Racing
Trainer: Jean-Claude Rouget
Principal Rider: Cristian Demuro
No horse that had been unraced as a juvenile had won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe since Rail Link struck in 2006. However, that changed in the latest season when Ace Impact capped a glorious campaign with victory at Longchamp, rubberstamping his status as the standout performer of his generation.
There's nothing unusual nowadays about the all-weather being used as the launchpad for a subsequent top-notcher – Enable famously won at Newcastle on her debut – but starting out at Cagnes-Sur-Mer is certainly an unorthodox path to take to the top.
After winning on the French Riviera, Ace Impact landed a conditions event at Bordeaux and a listed race at Chantilly before facing his first big test in the Prix du Jockey Club – also known as the French Derby. Ace Impact impressed with the turn of foot he found to sprint three and a half lengths in the Prix du Jockey Club and, after making the most of a straightforward opportunity in the Prix Guillaume d'Ornano, it was again his change of pace that marked him out as something special in the Arc.
Ace Impact, who was tackling a mile and a half for the first time in the Arc, still had most of the field in front of him two furlongs out, but he readily cut back his rivals with a surge striking enough to feature on any highlight reel of Arc winners through the ages.
Ace Impact achieved a Timeform rating of 133, which was comfortably the highest by a three-year-old around the globe or a horse of any age trained in Europe during the latest season. Given he raced only six times and retired with his career less than 10 months old, he surely would have been capable of even better had he been kept in training, too.
THIRD: WESTOVER (131)
Pedigree Details
Sire: Frankel
Dam: Mirabilis
Dam’s sire: Lear Fan
Breeder: Juddmonte
Foaled: April 24, 2019
2023 Race Record & Fact file
Races: 5
Wins: 1
Major wins: Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud
Owner: Juddmonte
Trainer: Ralph Beckett
Principal Rider: Rob Hornby
Westover won only once during the latest campaign, landing the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud in July, but he ran well to finish runner-up on his other four outings at the top level. He chased home the best horse in the world, Equinox, on his reappearance in the Dubai Sheema Classic, the best filly in the world, Emily Upjohn, in the Coronation Cup, and the best horse in Europe, Ace Impact, on his final start in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Westover had blown his chance in the 2022 King George by pulling too hard, but he gave a much better account of himself in the latest renewal, putting up a top-class effort to lose out by just a head to Hukum as the pair pulled four and a half lengths clear of King of Steel, with Luxembourg a further three and a quarter lengths back in fourth.
Westover and Hukum competed off level weights in the King George but, according to Timeform's weight-for-age scale, the year-younger Westover should have been receiving 1 lb in a one-and-a-half-mile event at that stage of the season. That is why he emerged with a Timeform rating 1 lb higher than his narrow conqueror.
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