Buoyed by a 1 ½-length victory in the $7 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic Nov. 2 at Del Mar, U.S.-based 3-year-old Sierra Leone improved his rating from a 120 to a 125 in the ninth edition of the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings for 2024.

The 125 rating boosted Sierra Leone from outside the top 10 to a tie for fourth in the new edition of the World’s Best Racehorse Rankings. The Chad Brown-trained Gun Runner colt also won the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes and Grade 1 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes this year and finished second to Mystik Dan in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve as well as third in the Belmont Stakes. The Breeders’ Cup Classic win elevated Sierra Leone in the 3-year-old male division in the United States as well; he is a lock to be at least a finalist for the Eclipse Award in the division.

The only dirt horse rated ahead of Sierra Leone is Laurel River, winner of the Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airlines March 30. Laurel River ranks first among all horses on the World’s Best Racehorse Rankings for 2024 with a 128 rating.

DraftKings Travers Stakes winner Fierceness, runner-up to Sierra Leone in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, is next among the dirt horses with a 123 rating. Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Thorpedo Anna is the top-rated female runner on dirt in the rankings with a 120 rating.

European star 3-year-old City of Troy and Australian Via Sistina are tied for second in the rankings at 127, with the latter the top-rated female overall after winning the Group 1 TAB Turnbull Stakes and Ladbrokes Cox Plate in October.

Epsom Derby winner City of Troy, a three-time Group 1 winner on grass in Europe in 2024 for Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien, tried dirt for the first time in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and was eighth behind Sierra Leone.