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With a rating of 130, the Aga Khan Studs homebred
Calandagan has been crowned Longines World's Best Racehorse
for 2025, ahead of five horses from four different countries who
all tied for second on a rating of 128.

At a ceremony to mark the Longines Racing Awards at the
Savoy Hotel in London on Tuesday, it was confirmed that the
performance of Calandagan when winning October's G1
Champion Stakes at Ascot was the best produced by any
racehorse on the planet last year. The son of Gleneagles B who
also struck at the top level in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, King
George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Japan Cup during a
blockbuster 2025 B becomes the first French-trained winner of
the prize since Waldgeist shared the honour with both Crystal
Ocean and Enable in 2019.

Accepting the award in London, Princess Zahra Aga Khan said,
AFrom the breeding shed to the racecourse, we've had an
amazing year. This is the result of amazing training, amazing
riding, amazing care of the horse. It's four years, five years of
work, in fact going back even further to sitting in those meetings
deciding on the matings.@

Calandagan's trainer Francis Graffard added of his victory in
the Japan Cup, AIt was a very special day for me because when
we were in Japan we realised how much of an honour it was to
be invited for this race and how important this race is for racing
globally. During the finish in the straight we went up and down B
at the top of the straight I thought we would win, in the middle
of the straight we were beaten and then thankfully he fought
back to the line, and that is what racing is all about.@

The depth of the fields beaten by Calandagan last year is
underlined by the standing of the Champion Stakes and Japan
Cup among the world's highest-rated races of 2025. Indeed, for
the first time, there was a tie at the top in the battle for the
Longines World's Best Horse Race Award, with the Champion
Stakes and Japan Cup both achieving a rating of 126.25. This
figure is calculated based on the first four finishers in each race
and the average of their ratings.