YOU THE (WO)MAN

OK, regardless of what the handicappers say, most of us reckon Black Caviar is the best in the world. Full stop.

Frankel, smankel we say and a good proportion of us believe she’d hand his you-know-what to him if they met over 1400m. Not that we’re biased :)

For the moment though we’ll just to console ourselves in the knowledge that Bel Esprit’s girl is still the BEST mare in the WORLD and still the BEST sprinter in the WORLD according to the latest international rankings released this week.

AAP takes up the story:

Australian champion Black Caviar has achieved the highest ever international rating for a mare in the latest world rankings.

The International Federation of Horse Authorities released its rankings on Tuesday with the unbeaten English middle distance start Frankel on top with 136.

Black Caviar was next and was also named the world’s best sprinter.

During 2011, Black Caviar won all her eight starts including six at Group One level and extended her career winning sequence to 16.

She was given an interim rating of 130 after her Newmarket Handicap victory in March and this was lifted to 132 in the final listings.

“The rating assigned to Black Caviar reflects her absolute dominance in the Newmarket Handicap where she gave weight and trounced her rivals to win in the fastest time ever recorded in the 138 year history of Australia’s iconic sprint race,” Greg Carpenter, Australia’s representative on the rankings committee, said..

Her ranking exceeds the previous highest for a sprinter of 125 by Oasis Dream in 2003 and the best by a mare of 130 by Goldikova in 2009.

Black Caviar headed the older sprint division ahead of Australian bred and Singapore trained Rocket Man (125) and Hay List (122) (by Statue of Liberty) who ran second to the mare in the TJ Smith Stakes and the BTC Cup.

The rankings take into account all performances throughout the world, irrespective of where individual horses raced or were trained, during the calendar year.

To merit inclusion in the rankings, a horse must have been rated at 115 or above.

Of the 351 to make the rankings in 2011, 47 were Australian-trained.

Three-year-olds Sepoy and Atlantic Jewel were also declared champions in their respective age and distance categories.

Sepoy was given a rating of 123 for his victories against older horses in the Group One Manikato Stakes at weight-for-age and the Group Two Caulfield Sprint under handicap conditions against older horses.

Atlantic Jewel (121) was the champion three-year-old filly in the intermediate distance category for her seven length win in the Wakeful Stakes (2000m).

Atlantic Jewel was assigned a rating of 121 for that win, the same rating she achieved for her victory in the Thousand Guineas (1600m).

She shared the title of champion filly in the mile category with outstanding French trained filly Immortal Verse who defeated Goldikova to win the Group One Jacques Le Marois.

Joining Sepoy and Atlantic Jewel in the three-year-old listings were Helmet (119), Manawanui (118), Mosheen (116), Smart Missile (116), Streama (116), Foxwedge (115) and Induna (115).

Dual Cox Plate winner So You Think was assigned a rating of 126 for his three wins at Group One level in Europe.

For the second successive year, the highest rated performance in a race further than 2700m was produced by Americain for his fourth in the Melbourne Cup under 58kg, 1.25 lengths behind the winner Dunaden who carried 54.5kg.

Americain’s performance was rated superior to Orfevres (122) win in the Japanese St Leger, Masked Marvels (121) victory in the English St Leger and the Ascot Gold Cup win of Fame and Glory (121).

In winning the Emirates Melbourne Cup, Dunaden achieved a rating of 118, the fifth best performance in a staying race in 2011.

Carpenter said the reason Americain rated considerably higher than Dunaden was because he conceded his rival 3.5kg, which equated to about six lengths over 3200m.