Racelab: Where does Via Sistina rank among modern greats?

There are some horses that leave racing quietly. Via Sistina was never going to be one of them.

Her retirement doesn’t just close the book on a champion mare, it invites a proper look back at just how good she really was. She will be primarily remembered through sentiment, highlight reels and nostalgia, but here Matt Collum dissects what she actually produced when the gates opened and the pressure was on.

That is where the RACELAB Performance Ratings come in.

RACELAB Performance Ratings standardise horse performances across the world. The Performance Rating reflects actual horse performance and typically may be more volatile than official handicap ratings. The RACELAB rating scale has origins in the HKJC race classification system.

The comparative RACELAB ratings range is outlined below. The below performance racing guide gives an indication as to the rating required to reach each benchmark:

At some point, every elite horse produces a performance that reframes the conversation. Not just a win, but a moment where the numbers stop being abstract and start telling a story all on their own.

For Via Sistina, that moment came at Moonee Valley in October 2024.

Via Sistina at her peak

Via Sistina’s 2024 Cox Plate performance rated 118.0, the equal highest Cox Plate rating RACELAB has ever assessed. It is also the second highest rated race of any kind globally in the database.

Her highest-rated performances read like a highlight reel backed by substance:

• 118.0 (JTD 108.3) Cox Plate, 26/10/2024, Moonee Valley 2040m, 1st by 8L, James McDonald 57.0kg

• 113.4 (JTD 105) Howden Dahlia Stakes, 07/05/2023, Newmarket 1811m, 1st by 6L, Jamie Spencer 58.0kg

• 112.0 (JTD 108.3) Champion Stakes, 09/11/2024, Flemington 2000m, 1st by 2.75L, James McDonald 57.0kg

Her Cox Plate sits level with the very best editions of the race, including Winx at her peak. On that performance alone, Via Sistina is rated as the equal second best horse of the past 15 years, placing her in rare company alongside Able Friend, Black Caviar, who achieved the mark twice, and Winx.

But she wasn’t invincible…

Via Sistina was a champion, but she was not invincible.

Her overall record shows a mare capable of producing elite performances across a wide range of distances, tempos and track conditions.

However, the data also highlights a clear kryptonite.

Via Sistina was most vulnerable in genuine sit and sprint races, where early and mid-race pressure was lacking and the contest became a short, sharp acceleration late. Races such as the Apollo Stakes, Makybe Diva Stakes and Turnbull Stakes fall into this category. When sustained pressure was absent, she was more exposed than when able to build through her gears.

Heavy ground was another scenario that worked against her. While she handled soft conditions, genuinely heavy tracks dulled her action and reduced her ability to sustain peak output over the final stages.

When races were run at a genuine tempo, however, the results were emphatic. Given room to travel strongly and apply pressure from the 600 metres, Via Sistina consistently elevated into elite territory. Her Cox Plate and Champion Stakes victories are clear examples, where strength, stamina and sustained speed were the decisive factors rather than a pure sit and sprint turn of foot.

A champion who loved the fight

For all the talk of ratings and big-margin wins, one of the most telling aspects of Via Sistina’s record sits quietly beneath the surface.

Six of her sixteen career wins were decided by half a length or less.

That matters. It tells us she was not simply a mare who dominated when everything went her way. She competed. She dug deep. When races became tactical, messy or genuinely hard, she still found enough to win.

Measured purely on performance, Via Sistina retires not just as a champion mare, but as one of the most accomplished racehorses of the modern era. The numbers underpin the story, but the story itself is simple.

When it mattered, she delivered.