Te Akau's Jamie Richards #21 in Global Rankings

Te Akau trainer Jamie Richards has become the highest ranked (21^st) New Zealand trainer in the Thoroughbred Racing Commentary Global Rankings, following the Group 1 Tarzino Trophy (1400m) win by Melody Belle (Commands) last Saturday at Hastings.

Akin to the ATP Tennis Tour
Rankings, or PGA Golf Tour Rankings, the TRC Trainer Rankings are the measure
of achievement over a rolling three-year period, based not on prize money but
the quality of performances by their horses in Group and Graded races. Racing
Post Ratings (RPRs) are used to help calculate the merit of every performance.

Broadcaster and Jockey Agent Aidan Rodley, who monitors the rankings, said:

“It could be the highest any New Zealander has got in the Trainer Rankings, or at least anyone training out of New Zealand has achieved”.

“It's a good way of recording excellence and Opie (Bosson) has been in the top 50 ranked jockeys most of the time. They rank sires, jockeys, owners, and trainers. James McDonald has been in the top five ranked jockeys and he's well up there again now, in the top twenty.

The only prominent New Zealanders are Jamie Richards (21) of Te Akau Racing and Baker/Forsman Racing (35). Melody Bell's further Group 1 success on Saturday saw Richards rise five points to the 21 spot. Singapore is not included in these rankings.

Rodley also said that jockey Michael McNab, who rode Melody Belle, jumped from 380 to 226 in the Jockey Global Rankings.

Rank	Last week	Name	Modal Country	Runners	Runs	IV	tRPR	G1 Wins	G2 Wins	G3 Wins	Points	Change
1	1	John Gosden	Great Britain	114	327	1.85	94.97	34	25	21	1083	0
2	3	Charlie Appleby	Great Britain	106	369	1.83	94.98	22	24	33	1081	6
3	2	Chad C Brown	USA	195	627	1.80	95.10	56	40	56	1080	1
4	4	Bob Baffert	USA	87	311	1.62	93.74	44	18	21	1057	-2
5	5	Aidan O'Brien	Great Britain	233	1177	1.30	97.11	61	39	60	1056	1
6	6	Andre Fabre	France	126	387	1.30	93.41	10	18	41	1030	-1
7	7	Saeed bin Suroor	UAE	55	204	1.53	89.81	13	13	11	1022	-1
7	9	Sir Michael Stoute	Great Britain	49	210	1.31	92.09	10	5	26	1022	1
9	7	James Cummings	Australia	120	483	1.35	91.60	14	16	32	1021	-2
10	10	Steven Asmussen	USA	110	334	1.17	92.30	16	8	26	1013	0
11	11	Chris Waller	Australia	192	919	1.30	90.55	40	36	27	1010	0
12	12	John Moore	Hong Kong	26	168	1.29	89.87	11	8	8	1005	-1
12	13	John W Sadler	USA	42	150	1.23	90.48	13	15	7	1005	0
14	14	Darren Weir**	Australia	163	590	1.48	87.52	22	18	41	1003	-1
15	15	John Size	Hong Kong	29	159	1.07	91.67	7	5	8	1001	-1
16	16	Brad H Cox	USA	74	202	1.25	89.66	8	10	19	1000	-1
17	18	Jerry Hollendorfer	USA	55	184	1.28	88.74	11	12	18	996	1
17	17	Justin Snaith	South Africa	51	157	1.45	86.84	17	3	3	996	0
19	19	Mike De Kock	South Africa	70	219	1.32	87.36	14	8	7	990	0
19	19	William Mott	USA	73	231	1.04	90.49	8	10	13	990	0
21	27	Jamie Richards	New Zealand	38	99	1.54	84.89	17	1	2	989	5
21	19	William Haggas	Great Britain	77	225	1.06	90.08	5	8	15	989	-1
23	22	Mark Casse	USA	143	432	1.18	88.64	18	15	28	988	1
24	22	Kazuo Fujisawa	Japan	31	120	1.47	85.22	6	7	7	986	-1
24	22	Tony Cruz	Hong Kong	27	192	0.91	91.22	8	3	7	986	-1
26	26	Todd Pletcher	USA	175	483	1.07	89.38	13	19	32	985	0
27	25	Mark Johnston	Great Britain	69	215	1.05	89.39	1	12	15	983	-3
28	28	Mitsumasa Nakauchida	Japan	20	64	1.52	83.81	2	5	8	980	-3
28	29	Roger Varian	Great Britain	58	163	1.05	88.95	5	3	13	980	-1
30	30	Karl Burke	Great Britain	30	92	1.29	86.19	9	4	6	979	-1
30	31	Yasutoshi Ikee	Japan	34	178	1.30	86.04	6	6	10	979	0
32	32	Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott	Australia	90	335	1.25	86.26	5	14	22	977	0
32	32	Sean Tarry	South Africa	75	249	1.09	87.97	18	2	3	977	0
34	35	Andrew Balding	Great Britain	58	194	0.98	89.09	2	11	10	976	1
35	39	Murray Baker & Andrew Forsman	New Zealand	54	164	1.32	85.16	13	3	7	974	3
35	36	Philip D'Amato	USA	66	183	1.11	87.41	6	15	10	974	0
37	40	Anthony Freedman	Australia	44	134	1.22	86.12	10	3	6	973	3
37	34	Peter & Paul Snowden	Australia	116	385	1.15	86.76	8	12	23	973	-3
39	38	Jason Servis	USA	25	87	1.06	87.45	5	3	9	971	-1
39	37	Peter Miller	USA	56	162	0.96	88.56	7	7	7	971	-2
41	44	Yasuo Tomomichi	Japan	29	129	1.12	86.74	6	4	4	970	3
42	41	Charles Hills	Great Britain	31	115	1.06	87.27	3	5	7	969	0
42	41	Tony McEvoy	Australia	93	273	1.10	86.82	8	5	16	969	0
44	52	H Graham Motion	USA	81	251	1.10	86.67	5	11	21	968	5
44	41	Kris Lees	Australia	76	311	0.93	88.50	5	6	14	968	-1
46	44	Andreas Wohler	Germany	68	174	1.22	85.28	2	7	19	967	0
46	50	Joseph Patrick O'Brien	Ireland	48	135	0.91	88.59	5	2	7	967	3
48	48	Ciaron Maher & David Eustace	Australia	78	204	1.08	86.50	6	5	10	965	0
48	44	Freddy Head	France	49	149	1.00	87.32	3	1	17	965	-2
48	47	Sakae Kunieda	Japan	25	81	1.31	84.01	5	1	7	965	-1
51	48	Jean-Claude Rouget	France	54	131	1.02	86.94	7	4	9	964	-1

The win by Melody Belle to defend
her Tarzino title, and register her seventh Group 1 victory, prompted Fortuna
Syndicate manager John Galvin to label the performance her best. “I think
that's her greatest win, ever, just the way she did it,” said Galvin, after watching
Melody Belle flash home from near last.

Having won five Group 1 races
last season and hot favourite for Horse of the Year, decided at the NZ
Thoroughbred Racing Awards on Sunday night at Ellerslie, Galvin also commented
on prospects for her upcoming season.

“David Ellis made some
interesting comments on this, because she spelled at Te Akau Stud after winning
the Bonecrusher (Stakes),” Galvin said. “She was there for about eight weeks
and she'd never been a great eater in her life, probably a little chink in her
armour, but he said she just ate her head off at the farm and he predicted that
her five-year-old year would be her best year, ever, which is saying a lot.
But, it was interesting that that was his observation.”

Ellis bought Melody Belle as
yearling for $57,500 at Karaka, and she has now won 12 of her 22 starts and
$1.74 million in prize money for owners in the Fortuna Melody Belle Syndicate
(Mgr: John Galvin), who turned down a whopping $3.25m at the end of her
previous campaign, in March.

“It was a combination of things,”
Galvin said. “Firstly, the people that wanted to buy her were going to retire
her to stud, but myself and one-hundred percent of the syndicate members didn't
want to see her finish racing at this point, and thought she had more to offer.
Secondly, the amount we were offered was probably never going to go away. A
figure like that was always going to be there in the future, at some point,
when she is retired. The third factor ties in with wanting to see her race and
the syndicate felt very strongly that she is a much loved horse by New
Zealanders, and we wanted to give her the right to see her racing career out on
the track so that everyone could enjoy the thrills of it.”

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