IN A NUTSHELL: Wise Dan’s Saturday victory was nearly — but not quite — enough to topple Shared Belief atop the latest National Thoroughbred Racing association Top Thoroughbred poll, released today.
WOULD YOU BELIEVE… THISCLOSE?: Wise Dan’s impressive win in Saturday’s Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland allowed him to gain in the poll. In fact, when the counting was done, he had 24 of the 44 first-place votes cast, versus just 19 for Shared Belief. However, Shared Belief’s strength on the polls he did not win enabled him to finish with 420 total points, seven more than Wise Dan.
IT’S A LONG WAY TO…: Third place. Other than the top two, no horse had more than 291 points.
FREE-FALLING: Close Hatches entered the weekend the poll’s highest-rated distaff runner. But in the Grade 1 Juddmonte Spinster, she was a well-beaten fourth despite being sent off at 1-5. That caused her to fall from third to eighth in the voting.
SAME OLD, SAME OLD: Outside of Close Hatches’ drop (and the requisite shuffling caused by it, with the fourth throught eighth horses from a week ago moving up one spot), there was no other movement in the poll.
TOGETHERNESS: There are three female runners on the list, in Untapable, Close Hatches, and Beholder, and each has won every start but one this year. They are seventh, eighth, and ninth in the latest poll.
AGE AND SEX: The list includes five three-year-olds (Shared Belief, California Chrome, Bayern, Untapable, and Tonalist) and three females (Beholder, Close Hatches, and Untapable).
NTRA TOP THOROUGHBRED POLL
- Shared Belief
- Wise Dan
- Tonalist
- California Chrome
- Main Sequence
- Bayern
- Untapable
- Close Hatches
- Beholder
- Palace Malice
Note: The Racing Biz writers Nick Hahn and Frank Vespe are voters in the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll.
