Cracksman, Winx Joint World's Best

Cracksman winning the 2018 Champion S. | racingfotos.com

Britain's Cracksman (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Australia's Winx (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}) were named the joint Longines World's Best Racehorses of 2018 at a ceremony at the Landmark Hotel in London on Wednesday. They both achieved a rating of 130, Cracksman for his title-defending six-length win in the G1 Champion S. in October and Winx for her second-straight victory in the G1 Queen Elizabeth S. in April. Cracksman, campaigned by Anthony Oppenheimer and trained by John Gosden, also won the G1 Prix Ganay and G1 Coronation Cup last year. The now 5-year-old enters stud at Darley's Dalham Hall Stud this year. Winx, meanwhile, trains on into the second half of her 7-year-old season after winning a record fourth G1 Cox Plate in October. Owned by Magic Bloodstock, Richard Treweeke and Debbie Kepitis and trained by Chris Waller, Winx has won 29 straight races. Winx has been in the top 10 of the Longines World's Best Racehorse rankings since 2015, and she has been the highest-rated filly or mare in the world since 2016.

America's Accelerate (Lookin at Lucky), whose five Grade I wins last year culminated in victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, was rated third best in the world at 128. Accelerate makes his final career start in Saturday's $9-million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational before entering stud at Lane's End Farm in Kentucky.

The G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe was also unveiled as the Longines World's Best Horse Race. France's signature race, which was won for the second time last year by Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), was taking the honor for the third time in four years of the award's existence.

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