Power Rankings - Top 25 Overall

• I'd call that a "significant bearing on the rankings"! The big dollar/high grade races are worth so many points that they have an immediate impact. The winner's average points shoot way up, which in turn cause an immediate impact on strength of race scores. Of course, a horse can't run in these type races every week because there just aren't that many. So, no matter how well she does the rest of the year, Broken Dream's average points have no where to go but down from here.
• The horse with the current highest average race strength is 3YO colt, Scenic Sky, with a 6.729! You'll have that when you run in a four-horse field and the other three are current top-25 memebrs (Broken Dream, Scenic Sheba, and Definite Gem). Now all Scenic Sky has to do is score some points so he can take advantage of that race strength number.
• It reasonably follows that the previously mentioned race, the Espom Handicap, is the current strongest race. The just run Dubai World Cup checks in at number two with a 5.257 score. In the third position is the Dubai Sheema Classic at 4.681.
• Take a good look at the lone 2YO on the list, as you probably won't see that too often. Unfortunately for Northern K D, there won't be enough $1,000,000 G2's available to him to overcome the low race strength scores that will hurt 2YO's all year.
• Now that there's a previous week's list to compare with, you can see how a horse's ratings will flucuate...even when they sit the week out. Perfect Bell didn't race this week, yet her average race strength score is a little lower. How does that work? Well, horses that she faced earlier this year raced this week, and overall caused her race strength score to drop a bit.
• On the other end of the scale, there's Braveheart. He sat out the week and saw his race strength score jump a nice amount. He had horses from both of his previous starts improve their power rankings, thus improving his race strength score.