With most leading Horse of the Year contenders having already completed their final preps ahead of the Breeders' Cup, the latest National Thoroughbred Racing Association Top Thoroughbred Poll showed little movement despite a flurry of graded stakes action last week.
Conducted among national media members, the poll tracks the leading candidates for Horse of the Year, the top honor in Thoroughbred racing. This year's poll concludes in the days following the Oct. 30-31 Breeders' Cup World Championships at Keeneland.
The top seven horses—Sovereignty, Forever Young, Knightsbridge, Nitrogen, Magnitude, Englishman, and Golden Tempo—all retained their positions from the previous week. The only change in the top 10 came when Deterministic moved up one spot to eighth and Notable Speech dropped to ninth. Splendora held 10th.
Godolphin's Notable Speech, trained in Britain by Charlie Appleby, traveled to Woodbine in September and defeated Deterministic, a dual grade 1 winner in 2026, in the Woodbine Mile Stakes (G1T), a steppingstone for the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T). Notable Speech won both races last year en route to earning North America's champion turf male honors.
Just outside the top 10 in 11th is Klaravich Stables' Fully Subscribed, who was 15th the week before her decisive victory in the Oct. 4 Spinster Stakes (G1) at Keeneland. She is expected to face Nitrogen in the Oct. 31 Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1).
The full poll and votes by voter can be found online.
Forever Young Tops Classic Rankings
The top five horses remained the same in the final 2026 Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) Rankings.
Forever Young with 25 first-place votes and 371 total votes held the top spot over Sovereignty, who came in the second slot with 12 first-place votes and 357 total.
Both Knightsbridge (272 total, 1 first place) in third and Magnitude (268, 1) in fourth received the two remaining first-place votes.
Golden Tempo, who stayed in fifth position, was the leading 3-year-old in the poll, with 252 votes.
The two shake-ups came with Napoleon Solo (144) topping The Puma (134) for sixth place, and Further Ado (89) moving ahead of Forged Steel (84) for the eighth slot.
Baeza (57) held the 10th and final placing once again, as the voting took place before his retirement was announced.
READ: Baeza Retired to Stud at Spendthrift Farm
The Breeders' Cup Classic will be run Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
The rankings were determined by a panel of leading Thoroughbred racing media, horseplayers, and members of the Breeders' Cup Racing Directors/Secretaries Panel. Votes by the panel were published on Aug. 11, Aug. 25, Sept. 8, Sept. 22, Sept. 29, and Oct. 6. A list of voting members can be found here.
