Year in review: 10 of the best horses of 2025

Any list of the 10 top horses of the year is at least a little bit subjective. Nobody, not even sabermetrically inclined data analysts, will come up with the same list of top horses for a year.

However, it still makes for an interesting discussion, which is why we’re including such a list here.

The main criterion used here is top-level performance. Preference is given to horses that have shown their absolute class regularly, rather than those that only produce outstanding efforts once or twice. So bad luck, Daryz – your Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe victory may have been top-class statistically, but you need more than one such effort to earn a place here.

With that proviso, here’s my list of the top performers of 2025.

Honorable Mentions: There’s been plenty of horses around the world deserving of a mention for consistent top-class performances. They include Hong Kong Triple Crown winner Voyage Bubble, Japan’s champion miler Jantar Mantar, New Zealand Horse of the Year El Vencedor, Caulfield-Melbourne Cups double winner Half Yours, the ever-present top Californian three-year-old Journalism, champion British stayer Trawlerman, and unbeaten Australian mare Autumn Glow. All had outstanding seasons, but not quite good enough to crack this top 10.

10. Ted Noffey

Unbeaten two-year-old males with three Grade I victories in the U.S. are not easy to find. In the Breeders’ Cup era, only Game Winner and Nyquist met this criterion. But 2025 produced one in the form of Ted Noffey. He earned his moniker through a social media misspelling of Spendthrift Farm general manager Ned Toffey, but victories in the Hopeful (G1), Breeders’ Futurity (G1), and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) ensured everyone in racing remembered his name. He looks a better chance than most Juvenile victors of becoming a Derby-quality three-year-old.

9. Obataye

This may not be a horse TwinSpires Edge readers know much about, but this Brazilian star joined a select group of South American racehorses in 2025. Before this year, only four horses – Potrillon, Much Better, Latency, and Sixties Song – had won both the Gran Premio Latinoamericano – the richest race in South America, which is swapped between countries each year – and the historic Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini, Argentina’s richest race. Obataye added his name to that list, taking out the 1 1/4-mile Latinoamericano in Brazil in October before outstaying his opponents in the 1 1/2-mile Carlos Pellegrini. The latter is a Breeders’ Cup Turf “Win, and You’re In” race, so there is a chance North American racegoers will see him in 2026.

8. Minnie Hauk

Aidan O’Brien is never without a good horse, and top of his list this year was this outstanding filly. She dominated her contemporaries in the Epsom Oaks, Irish Oaks, and Yorkshire Oaks, and then went down narrowly to Daryz in deep footing in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe after a stirring duel, the pair well clear of the rest. That final effort clearly took a lot out of her as she was well below her best in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, but her true worth is judged on her efforts before that.

7. Via Sistina

Sydney trainer Chris Waller knows a thing or two about training top-class mares, having prepared Winx, Verry Elleegant, and Autumn Glow. The Irish-bred Via Sistina, after distinguishing herself in Group 1 company in Europe, well and truly deserves to be mentioned alongside those distaffers, having become a dominant player since arriving in Australia last year. Her 2025 efforts didn’t produce anything as outstanding as her eight-length Cox Plate victory in 2024. However, she still won six Group 1 races, including the Queen Elizabeth Stakes over high-quality British horse Dubai Honour, and another Cox Plate-Champion Stakes double. Her Group 1 tally now stands at 12, 11 of them in Australia. Truly an owner’s dream.

6. Romantic Warrior

The Hong Kong star continues to amaze with his class and consistency, no matter where on the globe his Hong Kong connections take him. After scoring notable victories in Australia in 2023 and Japan in 2024, the Irish-bred began 2025 in the Middle East, winning the Jebel Hatta in Dubai before narrow second-place finishes in the Saudi Cup and the Dubai Turf. After that, requiring a screw to be inserted in his left foreleg, he returned late in the year to Hong Kong to win the Jockey Club Cup prior to taking the Hong Kong Cup for an incredible fourth consecutive year. That took his earnings to a ridiculous $32.8 million, making him easily the highest-earning horse in history. He’s set to be back for more at the age of eight in 2026.

5. Ombudsman

Godolphin had several high points in 2025, and Ombudsman was one of their very best. He had five starts and never finished further back than second, all against top-class horses at about 1 1/4 miles. The Irish-bred’s first high point came in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, defeating Anmaat, and after a narrow defeat to Delacroix in the Eclipse Stakes, he gained revenge on that horse in the Juddmonte International after his pacemaker Birr Castle nearly got away too far. He lost nothing in defeat to the outstanding Calandagan in the Champion Stakes at Ascot in October. Fortunately, he will remain in training next year.

4. Forever Young

If any horse is going to threaten Romantic Warrior’s record prizemoney haul, it may be Forever Young, who finally earned the ultimate international success for Japanese dirt horses in 2025. He began the year with a victory over Romantic Warrior in a truly epic contest for the Saudi Cup, a race which obviously took a lot out of him as he was below his best when third in the Dubai World Cup six weeks later. That earned him a long break, and then after a warm-up victory in Japan, he travelled to Del Mar and defeated his 2024 nemeses Sierra Leone and Fierceness to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the biggest dirt success for a Japanese horse in the U.S. Victories in the Saudi Cup and Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2026 may take him past Romantic Warrior’s tally, though the Hong Kong star will likely continue earning himself next year.

3. Sovereignty

Sovereignty lit up sophomore racing in the United States in 2026, producing one of the best campaigns by a U.S. three-year-old in recent memory. The Godolphin homebred won the Fountain of Youth and was second in the Florida Derby before a triumphant Kentucky Derby victory, overhauling the game and consistent Journalism in the stretch. After foregoing a chance at the Triple Crown by missing the Preakness, Sovereignty produced an identical effort to his Derby triumph in the Belmont. He returned in the summer to win the Jim Dandy and then the Travers, having scared off most of his best opponents. It was a huge shame that illness forced him out of a clash with Forever Young in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, but the great news is that he’s returning to racing in 2026.

2. Calandagan

Perhaps the biggest shame in world racing in 2025 was the continued obstinacy of France Galop in not allowing geldings to run in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. It meant Europe’s premier race was avoidably deprived of the presence of Calandagan, the best horse on the continent. However, the Irish-bred proved himself several times over, winning the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (G1), King George VI & Queen Elizabeth (G1), Champion Stakes (G1), and, even more notably, the Japan Cup (G1), becoming the first foreign horse to win in 20 years. As a gelding, he’ll also be back to enrich world racing in 2026.

1. Ka Ying Rising

No horse in the world shone more brightly in 2025 than Hong Kong sprinter Ka Ying Rising. The New Zealand-bred spent the year making a mockery of six-furlong races, winning all eight of his races and frequently breaking or threatening the track record. His level of excellence was shown when Japan’s Satono Reve, a horse he has beaten easily three times, nearly won the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Ka Ying Rising proved his international mettle himself in October, heading to the land of the best turf sprinters in the world – Australia – and beating them at their own game in the world’s richest turf race, the Everest. On either side of that, he was making his opponents look third-rate in many Hong Kong contests, culminating in another outstanding victory in the Hong Kong Sprint, taking his consecutive victory streak to 16. Once again, he’ll race on in 2026, where it will be interesting to see if he can raise the bar even further.