(Photo of California Chrome by Laurie Asseo.)

Staff report

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association today released its latest Top Thoroughbred Polls for all horses and for three-year-olds for the week ending March 27.

The full lists are below.

The twin polls are voted on by dozens of journalists and broadcasters, with points awarded on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.  Forty-four voters participated in this week’s polls.

 

POLL INSIGHTS

  • Gun Runner is the top mover in the three-year-old poll.  The dominant winner of the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby Saturday, Gun Runner moved up from eighth all the way to fourth on the list.  The rest of the list remained unchanged.
  • The top two horses in the Top Three-Year-Old Poll, Mohaymen and Nyquist, are scheduled to face off this coming weekend in the Grade 1 Florida Derby.
  • California Chrome’s dominant win in the Dubai World Cup solidified his standing in the top Thoroughbred Poll.  He received all 46 first-place votes.
  • Mshawish and Frosted were the two horses that took the biggest tumble in the Top Thoroughbred Poll.  The former dropped from second to seventh after finishing sixth in the Dubai World Cup, and the latter fell from fourth to 10th after a fifth-place finish in the same race.
  • New in the top 10 this week of the Top Thoroughbred Poll was Hoppertunity, whose third place finish in the Dubai World Cup impressed voters enough to move him from 11th to sixth.  He replaced Melatonin, who fell from 10th to 11th.
  • Two horses bred in the mid-Atlantic are among the top three-year-olds.
    • Pennsylvania-bred Mor Spirit is sixth in the poll.  He most recently was second in the Grade 2 San Felipe March 12 and owns a pair of graded stakes wins.
    • Maryland-bred Cathryn Sophia remained 10th in the poll.  She is undefeated in four starts and is pointed to the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland for her next start.

The full results for both NTRA weekly Thoroughbred polls can be found on the NTRA website.

[su_box title=”NTRA TOP THOROUGHBRED POLL” style=”glass”]THROUGH MARCH 27, 2016

TOP THREE-YEAR-OLD POLL

  1. MOHAYMEN
  2. NYQUIST
  3. SONGBIRD
  4. GUN RUNNER
  5. DANZING CANDY
  6. DESTIN
  7. MOR SPIRIT
  8. CUPID
  9. SHAGAF
  10. CATHRYN SOPHIA

TOP THOROUGHBRED POLL

  1. CALIFORNIA CHROME
  2. TEPIN
  3. BEHOLDER
  4. SONGBIRD
  5. MOHAYMEN
  6. HOPPERTUNITY
  7. MSHAWISH
  8. NYQUIST
  9. RUNHAPPY
  10. FROSTED[/su_box]

NOTE: The Racing Biz correspondents Nick Hahn and Frank Vespe are voters in the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll.