There was not any change to the top leaders of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's Top Thoroughbred poll released Sept. 9, but some shuffling did occur at the bottom of the Top 10.
Reigning Horse of the Year Sovereignty continues to lead the way in the weekly poll voted on by members of the national media. The Godolphin homebred winner of the Whitney Stakes (G1) Aug. 8 received 23 of 31 first-place votes for a point total of 296, giving him a comfortable 45-point lead over stablemate Knightsbridge.
Nitrogen and Magnitude remained third and fourth, respectively, while Forever Young swapped from sixth to fifth with Deterministic. Englishman remains in seventh.
The bottom four placings is where the most change occurred. Ranked eighth last week, Whitham Thoroughbreds' Burnham Square dropped into a tie for 10th with Splendora after a seventh-place finish in the Kentucky Turf Cup Invitational (G2T) at Kentucky Downs—a performance trainer Ian Wilkes and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. attributed to the heat.
Also, the announcement that reigning champion sprinter Book'em Danno will miss the Breeders' Cup saw him drop off the leaderboard and into 12th-place. Those two demotions saw Kentucky Derby (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Golden Tempo rise from ninth to eighth and Travers Stakes (G1) winner Leading Change taking the ninth spot after ranking 12th last week.
