With the horse racing world worth over $300 billion a year, it is a lucrative business, both for the owners and trainers as well as the sports bettors looking for that next big win when using Timeform and other betting platforms. And at the heart of the sport is the ultimate equine athlete – the thoroughbred racehorse.

At the top of their game, the world’s leading racehorses represent multi-million dollar returns for their owners, not just on the racetrack but as potential sires or dams to the next generation racetrack superstars. We pay tribute to some of horse racing’s biggest winners.

1. Arrogate

Total prize pot: £13 622,542

This superstar is an American world record holder and during his two years on the track, won over £13.5m, making Arrogate the world’s biggest prize money winner. He has twice been crowned the world’s best racehorse and in 2017 scooped the single biggest prize pot, the Pegasus World Cup, all the more remarkable when you consider Arrogate only had 11 starts during his career, winning seven. Sadly, this beauty – who also landed two other of the world’s richest races, the Breeders Cup and the Dubai World Cup before retiring in 2017 – passed away earlier this year but will always be remembered as one of the ultimate big winners.

2. Winx

Total prize pot: £12,619,302

Widely considered number two in the horse-racing world’s biggest winner stakes after Arrogate, Winx is an Australian-trained thoroughbred, where she is considered a racing superstar. Winx had a career spanning five years, and won an impressive 37 out of 43 starts, netting her one of her single biggest wins – £1.76m in the 2018 Ladbrokes Cox Plate. Originally bought for $203,000, Winx retired after her stellar career in 2019 and is now expected to be the dam of some future winners, destined to follow in her gold-plated hooves.

3. Gun Runner

Total prize pot: £12,238,136

Now retired, Gun Runner scooped 2017 American Horse of the Year after winning four Grade I races at the age four, finishing second in the Dubai World Cup, then winning the Woodward Stakes, Stephen Foster Handicap, Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Whitney Stakes. With 11 wins out of 18 starts during his career, Gun Runner finished on a high, winning the 2018 Pegasus World Cup. By the age of five, Gun’s racing career was over, and he is now a successful thoroughbred at stud, with his first batch of proteges set to start racing in 2021.

4. Thunder Snow

Total prize pot: £12,671,800

This Irish-bred racehorse has recently retired and is the only two-times, back-to-back winner of the Dubai Cup, which seriously boosted his total prize pot. The curious fact about this stunner is that while he may smash the big races, his total win record is a little inconsistent, with just eight wins out of 23 race starts to his name. But this stunning bay knew when to pull out the stops when it came to the top prizes, also scooping the UAE 2000 Guineas, the UAE Derby and the Prix Jean Prat. With a future stud career, we’re sure this winner will be in demand.