Japan and Britain heading in opposite directions - and it will become worse judging by Hukum and Westover moves

The world rankings paint a neat picture of two countries seemingly heading in opposite directions when it comes to racing: Japan and Britain.

The rankings mark a real breakthrough for Japan, which not only claimed its second world champion in Equinox, following Just A Way in 2014, but it was also the country with the second-highest number of horses on the list – those rated above 115 – for the first time, just two behind the United States. There were 57 such horses from Japan in the list, a rise from 48 last year.

Furthermore, Japan comfortably leads the way in terms of the number of trainers represented. Already in top spot by that metric in 2022 with 30 trainers, last year that number increased to 37.