Saturday’s Hollywoodbets Gr1 Gold Challenge is South Africa’s premier weight-for-age mile contest and has attracted a top-class field for the 2023 renewal, including our jointly top-rated gallopers Charles Dickens and Al Muthana.
The Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge is ranked locally on the IFHA tables alongside the Hollywoodbets Durban July and the HKJC World Pool Champions Cup, and internationally on a par with a race like the QIPCO Queen Elizabeth Stakes, which is run at Ascot.
Al Muthana (Richard Fourie) wins the 2022 Hollywoodbets Gr1 Gold Challenge (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
South Africa’s top-ranked Gr1 for 2022 was the WSB Cape Town Met.
In association with the Longines World Racing Awards, the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) publishes an annual list of Top 100 Group 1 and Grade 1 races.
The ranked list is compiled using the annual race ratings, which are calculated based on the first four finishers in each race. Longines and the IFHA use this list to determine the winner of the annual Longines World’s Best Horse Race Award.
The 2022 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic (Gr1) was honoured as the highest rated race in the world.
This is the second time the race has won the award, following the 2016 edition. In 2022, it achieved a rating of 126.75 after Grade 1 winners Flightline (USA), Olympiad (USA), Taiba (USA), and Rich Strike (USA) were the first four across the finish line.
Saturday’s racecard is available:
The remaining Top 10 rated races are the Qipco Champion Stakes (124.75), Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (124.25), Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes (123.75), Qatar Sussex Stakes (123.50), TVG Pacific Classic Stakes (123.25), Irish Champion Stakes (122.50), Queen Anne Stakes (122.50), Hill ‘N’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap (121.75), and Qatar Prix du Jockey Club (121.75).
The top rated races in the five respective distance categories are the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (119.50-Sprint); Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes (123.75-Mile); Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic (126.75-Intermediate); Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (124.25-Long); and Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup (119.75-Extended).
Legislate wins the Gold Challenge in 2015 (Pic – Gold Circle)
The highest rated race for fillies/mares is the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff (117.00), while the highest rated 3-year-old race is the Qatar Prix du Jockey Club (121.75).
Twelve countries comprise the list, representing the foremost racing events throughout the world across 40 different racecourses. Australia leads all countries with 20 total races, followed by Great Britain (18), United States (18), Japan (12), France (10), Hong Kong SAR, China (10), South Africa (5), Ireland (4), United Arab Emirates (4), Canada (1), Germany (1), and Saudi Arabia (1). Because of a five-way tie for the 100th spot on the list of Top 100 G1 races, the 2022 edition consists of 104 races.
Click here to see the top 100 races listing.
