RACING: Hawk Wing has been named the best horse to race in either Europe or the United States last Flat season, according to ratings awarded in the annual International Classifications.
Aidan O'Brien's star was granted the accolade by virtue of one performance, when he thrashed a top-class field headed by Where Or When by 11 lengths in the Juddmonte Lockinge Stakes, over a mile at Newbury in May.
On his only other start last year Hawk Wing finished a disappointing sixth in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, won by Dubai Destination, after which he was retired because of a knee injury.
The son of Woodman was awarded an end-of-season rating of 133, one point clear of champion three-year-old Dalakhani, whose best performance for French trainer Alain de Royer Dupre came when he won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Next came John Oxx's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes winner Alamshar on 131, followed by the Marcus Tregoning-trained Arc runner-up Mubtaker on 130.
Falbrav, who was sent out by Newmarket-based Luca Cumani to take part in 10 consecutive Group One races and won five of them in a hugely successful season, was rated no higher than 127, six behind Hawk Wing. Nonetheless he was yesterday named first winner of the British Horseracing Board's Horse of the Year award.
Falbrav's rating put him alongside another O'Brien inmate, High Chaparral, plus the horse the Irish runner dead-heated with in the Breeders' Cup Turf, Johar.
The top-rated filly was the Michael Stoute-trained Islington (120), who won the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf and ran a cracking race against the colts when third in the Irish Champion Stakes, while the female division among the three-year-olds was topped by another Aidan O'Brien runner, L'Ancresse (119).
The highest-rated stayers, all on 119, were Tim Easterby's Bollin Eric, Paul Cole's Gold Cup winner Mr Dinos, and Dermot Weld's Irish St Leger hero Vinnie Roe.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)