Photo:

Alex Evers / Eclipse Sportswire

Grade 1 Travers Stakes winner Fierceness continues
to hold the no. 1 position in the Breeders’ Cup Classic rankings, leading a
group of five 3-year-old competitors after the ninth week of voting.

Fierceness, owned by Repole Stables and trained by Todd
Pletcher, topped the rankings for the fifth consecutive week since capturing
the Aug. 24 Travers at Saratoga. Last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) winner
and champion 2-year-old male earned 327 points and stayed ahead of fellow
3-year-olds City Of Troy, Forever Young, Sierra Leone and Dornoch.

Thorpedo Anna is no. 1 in horse-of-the-year poll.

Epsom Derby (G1) and International Stakes (G1) winner City Of
Troy, trained by Aidan O’Brien, is in second place with 236 points followed by
Japan-based Forever Young, winner of the UAE Derby (G2) and third in the
Kentucky Derby, in third place with 180 points.  

The only change from last week’s rankings came when Sierra
Leone swapped  positions with Dornoch. Sierra
Leone, who was second in the Kentucky Derby, took over fourth place with 142 points.
Dornoch, winner of the Belmont and the Haskell (G1), dropped to fifth with
135 points.

Highland Falls, the 4-year-old winner of Saratoga’s Sept. 1
Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1), is in sixth place with 127 points. Ushba Tesoro,
second in the Saudi Cup (G1) and in the Dubai World Cup (G1), is in seventh
with 100 points in the vote taken before his runner-up finish Wednesday in the
Hai Stakes in Japan. Arthur’s Ride, the 4-year-old winner of the Aug. 3
Whitney (G1) at Saratoga, remains eighth with 82 points.

Four-year-old Derma Sotogake, who finished second in
last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, is ninth with 76 points. He since finished
fifth in the Hai Stakes. Six-year-old Saudi Cup (G1) winner Señor
Buscador is 10th with 65 points.

In the Breeders’ Cup Classic rankings, each voter rates
horses on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points system in descending order.  

The rankings are determined by a panel of leading
Thoroughbred racing media, horseplayers and members of the Breeders’ Cup racing
directors and secretaries panel. The top 10 will be updated next Wednesday before
one final poll is released Oct. 8.