Contact: Joan Lawrence, (646) 335-6833, jlawrence@ntra.com
Gun Runner Eclipses Arrogate for First Position in NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll
(receives 27 out of 41 first-place votes)
Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Monday, August 21, 2017) – The recent Grade 1 Whitney winner Gun Runner took over first place for the first time in Week 30 of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Top Thoroughbred Poll for horses of all ages, results of which were released today.
Trained by Steve Asmussen for owners Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm, the multiple graded stakes winner Gun Runner (27 first-place votes, 394 points) moved up the ladder to first place after sitting second to Arrogate for the last 21 weeks. The Candy Ride colt won his second straight “Win and You’re In” qualifying event for a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4 at Del Mar when he took the Stephen Foster (G1) in June and the Whitney two weeks ago.
Arrogate (10 first-place votes, 356 points), who has dominated the poll the first 29 weeks this year for trainer Bob Baffert and Juddmonte Farms, dropped down a notch to second after his runner-up finish behind stablemate Collected (ranked fourth with 235 points) in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic, a “Win and You’re In” contest for a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Arrogate, the leading earner in North American racing history, remains on target for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Two-time Eclipse Award winner Songbird (4 first-place votes, 299 points) remains in third after her victory in the Delaware Handicap (G1) this past month. Songbird, owned by Rick Porter’s Fox Hill Farm and trained by Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer, is scheduled to make her next start in the Personal Ensign (G1) this Saturday at Saratoga.
In fifth is the 5-year-old mare Stellar Wind (213), followed by Mor Spirit in sixth (166) and Grade 1 Diana winner Lady Eli (156) in seventh for Sheep Pond Partners.
Rounding out the remaining top-ten in descending order are: Mind Your Biscuits (108); Abel Tasman (81); and Lady Aurelia (53).
The NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll concludes November 6 after the running of the Breeders’ Cup.
The full results for the NTRA weekly Thoroughbred poll can be found on the NTRA website at:
http://ntra.kinsta.cloud/ntra-top-thoroughbred-poll-august-21-2017/
Preview of vote by voters can be viewed at:
http://ntra.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/Polls-week30-by_voter-2017.pdf
About the NTRA
The NTRA is a broad-based coalition of more than 100 horse racing interests and thousands of individual stakeholders consisting of horseplayers, racetrack operators, owners, breeders, trainers and affiliated horse racing associations, charged with increasing the popularity, welfare and integrity of Thoroughbred racing through consensus-based leadership, legislative advocacy, safety and integrity initiatives, fan engagement and corporate partner development. The NTRA, Based in Lexington, Ky., owns and manages the NTRA Safety & Integrity Alliance; NTRA.com; the NTRA Top Thoroughbred and NTRA Top 3-Year-Old weekly media polls; the Eclipse Awards; the National Handicapping Championship; NTRA Advantage, a corporate partner sales and sponsorship program; and Horse PAC, a federal political action committee. NTRA press releases appear on NTRA.com, Twitter (@ntra) and Facebook (facebook.com/1NTRA).
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