New York, New York (Monday, November 2, 2015) – Winning by six and a half lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Classic this past Saturday at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., American Pharoah is the first Thoroughbred to win what has been coined the “grand-slam” of Thoroughbred racing having captured the Triple Crown and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a triumph that belongs to him alone.
American Pharoah who became America’s 12th Triple Crown winner after breaking a thirty-seven year draught since 1978 on June 6 at Belmont Park is the unanimous leader of his division and for all horses of all ages in the latest NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll, results of which were released today. The Pioneerof the Nile colt, a winner of seven races out of eight starts received all (44) first-place votes for (440) points. American Pharoah has been retired and is standing at Coolmore Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky.
Ranked second is the five-year-old mare and two-time Eclipse Award Champion Beholder with (347) points. Beholder was declared out of the Breeders’ Cup Classic two-days shy of the race due to a lung infection. The Richard Mandella trainee is expected to return to racing in 2016.
The top 10 was rounded out by several horses who either won or placed in their divisional races in this year’s running of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. In descending order they are: Liam’s Map (324); Runhappy (260); Tepin (200); Honor Code (199); Songbird (130); Nyquist (103); Private Zone (68) and Eclipse Award winner Shared Belief who did not participate in the Breeders’ Cup and is back in light training ranked 10th with (54).
Eligible media 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 Thoroughbred Poll was conducted weekly through this Monday following the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
The full results for the NTRA weekly Thoroughbred poll can be found on the NTRA website at /business_development/files/NTRA%20Thoroughbred%20Poll%20Summary.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 owns and manages the NTRA Safety and 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. The NTRA has offices in Lexington, Ky., and New York City. NTRA press releases appear on NTRA.com, Twitter (@ntra) and Facebook (facebook.com/1NTRA).