Last fall, Thorpedo Anna won the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) en route to later being honored as Horse of the Year.
But the 2025 Horse of the Year honor seems more likely to go to a participant in the Nov. 1 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Del Mar, suggested by five Classic hopefuls leading the latest National Thoroughbred Racing Association Top Thoroughbred Poll. These media rankings represent horses competing for Horse of the Year.
The group is led by Godolphin's Sovereignty, the undisputed leader of the 3-year-old male division, and the top-ranked horse in the poll. The Bill Mott trainee received 27 of 28 first-place votes in week 37 of the national media poll, which covered racing performances through Oct. 5.
Pacific Classic (G1) winner Fierceness is second, while fellow 4-year-olds Mindframe and Sierra Leone are tied for third. Sierra Leone won the 2024 Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar. Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Journalism rounds out the top five.
Mindframe received one first-place vote.
Descending in the rankings this week was Thorpedo Anna, who dipped from fifth to eighth after a disappointing fourth-place finish in Sunday's Spinster Stakes (G1) at Keeneland.
No new horses cracked the top 10 this week, though Breeders' Futurity (G1) winner Ted Noffey rose in the others-receiving-votes category to land in 17th place. He was the only 2-year-old to receive votes.
The full poll and votes by voter can be found online.
Meanwhile, the final Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings announced Oct. 7 have many of the same leaders in prominent positions in that poll.
Sovereignty, Fierceness, Sierra Leone, and Mindframe are 1-2-3-4, and Japanese star Forever Young is fifth.
The Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings were determined by a panel of leading Thoroughbred racing media, horseplayers, and members of the Breeders' Cup Racing Directors/Secretaries Panel. The rankings have no bearing on qualification or selection into the Breeders' Cup Classic.
