FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joan Lawrence, NTRA Communications, (646) 335-6833
MOHAYMEN, NYQUIST MAINTAIN ONE, TWO IN 3-YEAR-OLD POLL;
CALIFORNIA CHROME TAKES ALL FIRST PLACE VOTES AND LEADS TOP THOROUGHBRED POLL
Saratoga Springs, NY (Monday, March 28, 2016) – The “Road to the Triple Crown” National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Top 3-Year-Old Poll showed little movement this past weekend with the exception of Steve Asmussen’s trainee, Gun Runner, who moved up four notches from eighth to fourth in the top 10 with 280 points (2-first place votes) after the son of Candy Ride ran to an authoritative 4½-length victory in Saturday’s Grade II, $1,000,000 TwinSpires.com Louisiana Derby under jockey Florent Geroux.
Unbeaten standouts Mohaymen (429 points and 23 first-place votes) and Nyquist (384 points,10 first-place votes) – expected to clash in the upcoming Florida Derby (G1) at Gulfstream Park this Saturday – remain the leading sophomores, respectively.
Songbird (303 points, 8 first-place votes), the leading 3-year-old filly with two easy wins this year and undefeated in six starts overall, remains in third.
Rounding out the top-ten are: Danzing Candy (224 points, 1 first-place vote); Destin (206 points,1 first-place vote); Mor Spirit (175 points, 1 first-place vote); Cupid (169); Shagaf (124) and Cathryn Sophia (79).
The NTRA Top 3-Year-Old Poll is the sport’s most comprehensive survey of experts ranking the generation of Thoroughbreds that includes all Triple Crown contenders. Every week as many as 50 eligible journalists and broadcasters cast votes for their top 10 horses, with points awarded on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. The NTRA Top Three-Year-Old Poll concludes Monday, June 12, following the Belmont Stakes, the third jewel of the Triple Crown.
In the Top Thoroughbred Poll, the new all-time leading money earner in the U.S., California Chrome, remained on top for the fourth straight week with 460 points and 46 first-place votes after his smashing three and three-quarter length victory in the $10 million Dubai World Cup (Group 1). With earnings of $12,532,650, California Chrome surpassed 2008 Dubai World Cup winner Curlin, who retired to stud with earnings of $10,501,800.
The Dubai World Cup results caused some movement in both directions in this week’s top 10 rankings with Mshawish (140 points) dropping to seventh from fourth place after his sixth-place World Cup finish, Frosted (109 points) slipping to tenth after his fifth-place performance and joining the top 10 for the first time this week is Bob Baffert trainee Hoppertunity (192 points), who took third, beaten by four lengths, after making a late charge on the Meydan Racecourse.
Rounding out the top older horses are the 5-year-old mare Tepin (320 points); Beholder ( 252 points); Songbird ( 222 points); Mohaymen (193 points); Nyquist (128 points); and Runhappy (119).
The NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll concludes Monday, November 7, following the Breeders’ Cup World Championships on Friday, November 4 and Saturday, November 5, at Santa Anita Race Course, Arcadia, California.
The full results for both NTRA weekly Thoroughbred polls can be found on the NTRA website at: http://ntra.kinsta.cloud/ntra-top-thoroughbred-poll-march-28-2016/
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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