Azamour and Grey Swallow notched up three Group One victories between them last season, and they have been jointly rated as the best Irish-trained horses of 2004 by the World Thoroughbred Racehorses rankings.
The ratings, announced yesterday, put both colts on a mark of 123, and although that is a full 10lb lower than Hawk Wing in 2003, each will have the chance to improve on it in 2005.
Dermot Weld nominated the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh in late-May as a likely return date for Grey Swallow, who beat North Light in last June's Irish Derby.
"He has wintered very well and I think he is entitled to his rating. He earned it in the Derby when he beat the first, second and third from Epsom. The Tatts race will be his first target, but we are not thinking about after that," Weld said yesterday.
Looking ahead to this year's classics, the top-rated juvenile of 2004 is the unbeaten Dewhurst winner Shamardal. Now with Godolphin, the ex-Mark Johnston trained colt is on 123, a pound ahead of Aidan O'Brien's Middle Park winner Ad Valorem and the National Stakes winner Dubawi.
Shamardal's mark is better than the 121 earned by Bago in 2003, but that French colt has gone on to a rating of 126 after an Arc de Triomphe victory that officially makes him Europe's top-rated three-year-old.
But the official best horse in the world last year was the Breeders' Cup Classic winner Ghostzapper, whose rating of 130 puts him 2lb clear of the Kentucky Derby winner Smarty Jones. The top-rated European runner was Godolphin's Doyen on 127.
The top-rated, Irish-trained three-year-old filly was Alexander Goldrun on 116, but the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown in September was the race which resulted in the career-best performances of the top fillies Soviet Song (119) and Attraction (118).
The best filly of all in the ratings, however, is the double-Oaks and Breeders' Cup winner Ouija Board who earned a 120 mark with her third in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
123 Shamardal (M Johnston)
122 Ad Valorem (AP O'Brien)
122 Dubawi (Godolphin)
120 Rebuttal (B Meehan)
119 Wilko (J Noseda)
117 Divine Proportions (P Bary)
117 Motivator (M Bell)
117 Oratorio (AP O'Brien)
116 Berenson (T Stack)
116 Iceman (J Gosden)
116 Layman (A Fabre)
116 Montgomery's Arch (Chapple-Hyam)
116 Early March (C Head)
