Sovereignty leads final Breeders' Cup Classic rankings
Leading all the way from the start of voting 10 weeks ago, Godolphin’s homebred 3-year-old Sovereignty finished first in the final poll of the Breeders’ Cup Classic rankings.
The rankings are a weekly rating of the top 10 horses in contention for the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, which will be run Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Trained by Bill Mott, Sovereignty, winner of the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Grade 1 Travers , earned 394 votes.
Fierceness, who won the Aug. 30 Pacific Classic (G1) at Del Mar, is in second place with 338 votes for trainer Todd Pletcher.
Whitney Stakes (G1) winner and defending Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sierra Leone finished in third place with 317 votes for trainer Chad Brown.
Stephen Foster Stakes (G1) winner Mindframe finished in fourth place with 245 votes for trainer Todd Pletcher.
Forever Young won the Oct. 1 listed Nippon TV Hai at Funabashi Racecourse in Japan in his first start since finishing third in the Dubai World Cup (G1) in April. Trained by Yoshito Yahagi, Forever Young, third in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, improved from sixth to fifth place in the final poll, earning 217 votes.
Journalism, winner of the Preakness and Haskell (G1), dropped one position to sixth place with 212 votes for owners trainer Michael McCarthy. Baeza, winner of the Pennsylvania Derby (G1), came in seventh place with 172 votes for trainer John Shirreffs.
Two more Pletcher-trained horses finished in the eighth and ninth positions. Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) winner Antiquarian came in eighth place with 120 votes, and 4-year-old Locked, who won the Sept. 27 Woodward (G2) at Aqueduct, came in ninth place with 58 votes.
Highland Falls, runner-up in the Whitney Stakes (G1), rounded out the top 10 with 45 votes for trainer Brad Cox.
The Breeders’ Cup Classic Rankings were determined by a panel of Thoroughbred racing media, horseplayers and members of the Breeders’ Cup racing directors-secretaries panel. A list of voting members can be found here.
In the Breeders’ Cup Classic rankings, each voter rated horses on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 system in descending order.
| Horse | Votes | 1st-place votes | Previous week | Trainer |
| 1. Sovereignty | 394 | 35 | 1 | Bill Mott |
| 2. Fierceness | 338 | 2 | 2 | Todd Pletcher |
| 3. Sierra Leone | 317 | 2 | 3 | Chad Brown |
| 4. Mindframe | 245 | 0 | 4 | Todd Pletcher |
| 5. Forever Young | 217 | 1 | 6 | Yoshito Yahagi |
| 6. Journalism | 212 | 0 | 5 | Michael Maker |
| 7. Baeza | 172 | 0 | 7 | John Shirreffs |
| 8. Antiquarian | 120 | 0 | 8 | Todd Pletcher |
| 9. Locked | 58 | 0 | 9 | Todd Pletcher |
| 10. Highland Falls | 45 | 0 | 10 | Brad Cox |
The Breeders’ Cup Classic rankings hav no bearing on qualification or selection into the Breeders’ Cup Classic.