Absolute Champion joins elite club

The latest assessment of the World's Top 50 Horses sees a new Hong Kong admission to this elite club, with Absolute Champion being acknowledged for his incredible victory in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint on December 10.

Absolute Champion, prepared by David Hall, raced as Genius And Evil as a juvenile in Australia, where his best performance was a victory over Fastnet Rock at set weights in the Pago Pago Stakes (Group Two, 1,200m).

That form looked even more formidable when, the following season, Fastnet Rock became a leading three-year-old sprinter with victories in the Lightning Stakes (Gr.1), Oakleigh Plate (Gr.1) and a second to the star filly Alinghi in the Newmarket Handicap (Gr.1).

Absolute Champion took time to adjust to his new surroundings but has really blossomed this season under the tutelage of Hall. The brown son of 1987 Golden Slipper hero Marauding was devastating in the Hong Kong Sprint, where he won by 43/4 lengths from the great Silent Witness and sliced 0.3 seconds off his own Sha Tin course record.

Absolute Champion was rated at 121 by the committee of international handicappers that form these World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings, one pound ahead of the Global Sprint Challenge hero Takeover Target.

The World Top 50 list sees one other Hong Kong-based horse, Vengeance Of Rain, who is given credit for his brave third to Pride and Admire Moon in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup, on a rating of 118.

The full list and further information on the rankings are available on the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities website www.Ifhaonline.org.