Which horse had the best performance of the 25/26 season?

With the 2025/2026 racing season coming to an end, it’s time to wind back the clock and review the season that was.

When looking at the single best individual performance of the season, plenty of runs come to mind - Via Sistina in the Cox Plate, Half Yours in the Melbourne Cup, Ka Ying Rising in The Everest, Sheza Alibi in the Doncaster Mile - but which victory was the best?

Ratings guru Daniel O’Sullivan dug through the numbers and found the best individual performance of the 25/26 racing season, and it is none other than Sheza Alibi’s astonishing 4.29 length domination in the Group 1 Doncaster Mile (1600m).

Speaking on SENTrack & RSN’s Giddy Up, O’Sullivan exclaimed that the three-year-old filly’s Doncaster victory was just something that you don’t see, based off the figures.

In fact, it was “impossible to go past” the daughter of Saxon Warrior for the victory of the season.

“Sheza Alibi in the Doncaster. It’s a pretty obvious one, it’s impossible to go past her,” the ratings expert said.

“It was almost a performance which is hard to put into words because when you analyse performances every day and do it for a couple of decades and look at all the figures, you sometimes look at performances where you say, ‘You just don't see that!’

“That was the type of performance she produced. I mean, it was a fast, high-pressure mile, she was 10, 11 lengths off them, the quality of her speed over the final 800m to 1000m in that race, the level of overall time.

“And the fact of how fast she was through the final 200m – nearly five lengths above standard. That's rare to see in any case, even when they go slowly in a race, let alone at the backend of a fast mile.

“Obviously she had no weight on her back, we take all that into account, but I would say that was one of the best performances anywhere in the world across the season.”

The ratings guru continued by explaining how mind-boggling it was that the Peter Moody & Katherine Coleman-trained bay wasn’t even properly targeting the prestigious Group 1 as her Grand Final as well.

“It's amazing to think that for a while there, she wasn't even slated to run in that race. It was very much a decision with a few weeks to go to pivot and head to that race,” O’Sullivan stated.

“We saw the emergence of a horse that that is potentially going to be a champion. Just the backstory with where she's from and the ownership, it very much encapsulates everything that Australian racing stands for.

“Definitely the performance of the year.”

What makes the incredible victory even better was that the 4.29 length triumph wasn’t just a one-off shellacking.

It was a well-deserved win off the back of multiple dominating victories in the lead-up to the Doncaster.

“She came off the back of a Randwick Guineas win, which was also elite by three-year-old standards, so it's not like it was a one-off,” the ratings expert continued.

“Like she put over three lengths on Autumn Boy, who come out and bolted in the Rosehill Guineas, and then ran second to her in the Doncaster itself, so all the form stacks up through there.

“I just can't wait to see her come back in the spring!”

Sheza Alibi is currently in the market with Sportsbet to win multiple Group 1s in the Spring Racing Carnival, being at $3.40 for the King Charles (1600m), $4.50 for the Empire Rose (1600m), $4.60 for the Epsom Handicap (1600m) and Champions Mile (1600m), $7.50 for the Champions Stakes (2000m), and $9 for the Cox Plate (2040m).

She is also $1.95 to win the $10 million Golden Eagle (1500m) – a race which Peter Moody has previously said he is interested to win with Sheza Alibi.

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