California Chrome dominant in NTRA poll

Photo of Exaggerator and Nyquist by George Adams.

From a National Thoroughbred Racing Association release

The all-time leading money earner in the U.S., California Chrome, remains in first-place for the sixteenth straight week with (29 first-place votes, 362 points) in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Top Thoroughbred Poll. With earnings of $12,532,650, California Chrome has surpassed 2008 Dubai World Cup winner Curlin, who retired to stud with earnings of $10,501,800.

This poll marked the first of the year in which there was no separate three-year-old poll.

The NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll is the sport’s most comprehensive survey of experts ranking all-ages of Thoroughbreds. Every week 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 Thoroughbred Poll concludes Monday, November 7, following the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, which will be held at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California.

North American champion turf female Tepin (7 first-place vote; 316) remains second in the rankings for owner Robert Masterson and trainer Mark Casse after crushing her opponents on June 14 in the Queen Anne Stakes (Group 1) at Ascot.

Three-time Eclipse Award Champion, Beholder (258) remains fourth in the rankings after her easy victory in the Vanity Mile (GI) at Santa Anita Park with her regular rider Hall of Famer Gary Stevens, her trainer, Hall of Famer, Richard Mandella and owner, B. Wayne Hughes. Beholder could show up next in the GI Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar on July 30.

Songbird (162) the undefeated sensational three-year-old filly is ranked seventh in the top-ten having captured Saturday’s G2 Summertime Oaks easily by 6 ½ lengths under regular rider Mike Smith going a mile and a sixteenth in 1:42.63 at Santa Park for Fox Hill Farms owner Rick Porter and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. It is expected Songbird’s next race will take place east of California against her own sex.

Rounding out the field is: Frosted (1 first-place vote; 261 ;); Nyquist (187); Flintshire (166); Exaggerator (60); Hoppertunity (45); and Melatonin (41).

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