Six-time Group One winner (It’s A) Dundeel has been confirmed as the world's best New Zealand-bred performer this season with an international rating of 122
The former Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman-trained son of High Chaparral earned top billing in the latest LONGINES World's Best Racehorse Rankings.
The four-year-old defeated the previously unbeaten mare[n} Atlantic Jewel[/n] in the Gr.1 Underwood Stakes in the spring and returned in the autumn to beat Sacred Falls, Carlton House and Silent Achiever in the Gr.1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
The latter performance, in which It's A Dundeel kicked clear off a punishing pace, ranks him second only to Northern Hemisphere four-year-old Magician among the world's best entires over 2000 metres on turf.
In Australia and New Zealand, only the world's top-rated sprinter Lankan Rupee (123) ranks above (It's A) Dundeel, who retires to Arrowfield Stud this spring as the winner of 10 of his 19 starts.
Sacred Falls is the only other Australasian performer to make the leading group of horses on the published world rankings with a figure of 120.
He won the 1600-metre Gr.1 Doncaster Handicap for the second time this season, but has been rated on his Queen Elizabeth second behind Dundeel, in the Intermediate category (1900m-2100m).
