Lemaire salutes Equinox – officially the world’s best

‘He was nearly the perfect racehorse’.

Equinox has been crowned the world’s best racehorse of 2023 – and with it the highest-rated Japanese horse of all time.

A year that started with a brilliant three-and-a-half-length beating of Westover in the Dubai Sheema Classic featured another three Group Ones, culminating in his farewell to the track in the Japan Cup.

Trained by Tetsuya Kimura, Equinox was only beaten twice in his 10-race career, winning six Group Ones in total.

He was given a rating of 135 in the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, which are compiled by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.

Team Equinox on stage in London
Team Equinox on stage in London (PA)

His figure is 5lb below the 140 awarded to Flightline 12 months ago, which equalled the benchmark under the current system set by Frankel in 2012, but he sits 7lb ahead of last year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Ace Impact and dual Group One victor Mostahdaf, who were both rated 128.

Christophe Lemaire rode Equinox in every start and he attended a glittering ceremony in London on Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the son of Kitasan Black’s achievement.

Asked what it was like to ride Equinox, Lemaire joked: “To be honest it was quite enjoyable!

“Each time he ran there were big expectations, but I had so much confidence in the horse that I had no fear. To ride him, it was just a pleasure to be on a galloping horse.

“The way he ran was just amazing. Of course, I tried to do my job as well as possible and it was a great journey – I will miss him a lot.

“As have most top athletes, he had a combination of physical strength and mental strength. His physical allowed him to run fast and further using his beautiful stride, very well balanced and also he was very clever, so he understood very quickly what he had to do to win the race.

“My job was just to take a good start and put him in the right position to let him express his talent.

“He was nearly the perfect racehorse and we have to congratulate the breeder (Northern Farm) who could produce such a beautiful horse and the trainer for getting him mature to compete at the best level.

“Just after his debut, I could feel he was special, the way he moved, his acceleration, his attitude on the track – I could feel very quickly he would become a very good horse. Most other people discovered him in Dubai, but in Japan he was already a rising star.”

Equinox officially retired at the end of November, with thousands of people attending a ceremony for the horse in mid-December before he headed to his new role at Shadai Stallion Station, where he will stand for ¥20 million – just over GBP 106,000.

Speaking through a translator, Kimura said: “I wasn’t prepared for it all (the praise he received after Dubai), I feel like I’ve still been in a dream since then.

“The expectations were very high (before the Japan Cup) and it was very difficult to stay calm, but Equinox showed an amazing start and he has the most beautiful stride in the world and he managed to beat all his rivals with his amazing stamina, so I have nothing else that I wanted from him at all.”

To add to the Japanese laurels, the Japan Cup was named the best race in the world for the first time, with a rating assigned on the first four finishers.

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