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Breeders’ Cup Classic Rankings: Improbable Stays On Top, Swiss Skydiver Joins Top 10

Whitney (G1) and Awesome Again Stakes (G1) winner Improbable maintained his lead in the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings, while Tom's d'Etat rose to No. 2 and the filly Swiss Skydiver, who captured Saturday's 145^th Preakness Stakes (G1), enters the top 10 at No. 7.

The 2020 Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings is a weekly poll of the top 10 horses in contention for the $6 million Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1). The 1 ¼-mile Classic, scheduled to be run on Nov. 7 at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., is the climactic race of the Breeders' Cup World Championships.

Improbable (312 votes), owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club International and SF Racing, rose to No. 1 in the rankings following his dominant win in the Sept. 26 Awesome Again at Santa Anita Park. This week, GMB Racing's Tom's d'Etat, winner of the Stephen Foster (G2) at Churchill Downs, jumped over Gary and Mary West, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith's Maximum Security (258 votes), winner of the TVG Pacific Classic (G1), into second place.

Sackatoga Stable's Tiz the Law (233 votes), winner of both the Belmont (G1) and Travers Stakes (G1), remains in fourth place, followed by Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Authentic (202 votes), who finished second by a head to Swiss Skydiver in the Preakness. Allied Racing Stable's By My Standards (166 votes) stays in sixth place.

Swiss Skydiver (124 votes), owned by Peter Callahan and trained by Kenny McPeek, became just the sixth filly in history to win the Preakness Stakes, prevailing in a dramatic stretch drive by a head over Authentic. The Preakness win gave Swiss Skydiver an automatic berth into the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic through the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series. Swiss Skydiver also has a “Win and You're In” berth in the $2 million Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1), which she earned by capturing the Alabama (G1) at Saratoga on Aug. 15.

Sagamore Farm and WinStar Farm's Woodward Stakes (G1) winner Global Campaign (84 votes) rises from ninth to eighth place, and Juddmonte Farms' Suburban Stakes (G2) winner Tacitus (76 votes) moves from 10^th place to ninth.

W.S. Farish's Code of Honor (72 votes), who finished second in Saturday's Kelso Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park, drops from seventh to 10^th place.

Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings – Oct. 7, 2020*

RANK	HORSE	TOTAL VOTES	FIRST-PLACE VOTES
1	Improbable	312	16
2	Tom's d'Etat	261	7
3	Maximum Security	258	6
4	Tiz the Law	233	4
5	Authentic	202	1
6	By My Standards	166	0
7	Swiss Skydiver	124	0
8	Global Campaign	84	0
9	Tacitus	76	0
10	Code of Honor	72	0

*Note – The Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings have no bearing on qualification or selection into the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic.

The Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings are determined by a panel of leading Thoroughbred racing media, horseplayers and members of the Breeders' Cup Racing Directors/Secretaries Panel. Rankings will be announced each week through Oct. 13. A list of voting members can be found here.

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

The 2020 Longines Breeders' Cup Classic will be televised live on NBC.

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View From The Eighth Pole: The Impossible Dream

Well, we got through it.

The 2020 Triple Crown was different, that's for sure.

A Belmont Stakes that began the series, not at its traditional mile and a half but at a truncated nine furlongs around one turn.

A Kentucky Derby run in eerie silence on the first Saturday in September in a city on edge for months because of growing racial tensions.

A lost in the shuffle Preakness Stakes that brought the series to an end in early October on a day when tracks in New York and Kentucky were showcasing horses gearing up for the autumn Breeders' Cup world championships.

It was unprecedented. It was beautiful. It was 2020 personified.

The stars of this Triple Crown in the year of the coronavirus pandemic were, as always, those magnificent Thoroughbreds.

The New York-bred Tiz the Law demonstrating his dominance at Belmont Park for octogenarian Barclay Tagg and the everyman Sackatoga Stable partners, proving that age is just a number when it comes to training a racehorse.

The Derby showed us, once again, why they run the race.

While Tiz the Law looked unbeatable on paper, having gone on after the Belmont to win the Travers Stakes over the same mile and a quarter distance, he hadn't yet taken on the aces from the Bob Baffert Travel Team. Sure, Nadal was retired, Charlatan had been sidelined with an injury and Eight Rings, Cezanne and Uncle Chuck just weren't up to to the task at this stage of their careers, but the white-haired wonder still had the once-beaten Into Mischief colt Authentic and the insurgent Thousand Words in his arsenal. Well, scratch the latter…literally…just minutes before the Derby after acting up in the saddling paddock.

Authentic proved just that, denying Tiz the Law in the Run for the Roses and looking like a cinch to repeat in the Preakness a month later – especially after the Belmont winner's connections decided to sit this one out. A cinch, at least until forgotten rider Robby Albarado seized the moment to resurrect his career, boldly sending the gallant filly Swiss Skydiver to take on Authentic for a throwdown in the final three-eighths of a mile the likes of which we haven't seen at Old Hilltop since Sunday Silence and Easy Goer were hip to hip in that glorious Preakness of 1989. Or maybe since Albarado, aboard Curlin, engaged and defeated Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense in another memorable running of the Preakness in 2007.

Trainer Kenny McPeek calls this Daredevil filly – one he bought for just $35,000 on day nine of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale – a throwback. Sure nuff, she is. Her past performances read like the announcements echoing through a train station: Tampa, New Orleans, Miami, Hot Springs, Arcadia, Lexington, Saratoga Springs, Louisville, Baltimore.

All aboard.

This was David beating Goliath, Main Street outperforming Wall Street. It wasn't just a filly against colts, it was a victory for the little guys against the conglomerates. Likewise, Belmont winner Tiz the Law came from an ownership group that won all of four races last year from a five-horse stable.

But this game isn't about numbers, at least not for everyone. It's about dreams. Seemingly impossible dreams. And when they come true, as Don Quixote said, the world will be better for this.

That's my view from the eighth pole.

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Swiss Skydiver Vaults To Third Position In NTRA Top 3-Year-Old Poll

Peter Callahan's Swiss Skydiver made history this past weekend when she became just the sixth filly to capture the Preakness Stakes, a stirring effort that allowed the daughter of Daredevil to move up the ranks in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Top 3-Year-Old Poll.

Trained by Kenny McPeek, Swiss Skydiver came into the 1 3/16-miles Preakness off a runner-up effort in the September 4 Kentucky Oaks and had won four other graded races this season, including the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes. The chestnut filly outdueled Kentucky Derby winner Authentic by a neck in the Preakness to assert herself as the leader of the sophomore filly ranks, earning 11 first-place votes and 359 points to move up to third overall in the poll.

Authentic, who was 9 ¾ lengths clear of third-place finisher Jesus' Team, lost the final leg of the 2020 Triple Crown but still holds the top spot in the poll with 18 first-place votes and 378 points. Belmont and Travers Stakes winner Tiz the Law is second with 14 first-place votes and 369 points while Grade 2 winner Art Collector (249 points) dropped one spot to fourth, just behind Swiss Skydiver.

Grade 1 winner Honor A. P., who has been retired to stud, remains fifth with 155 points followed by fellow top-level winner Gamine (128 points) and Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil (112) in seventh. Max Player (110 points) ranks eighth while Thousand Words (52) and Jesus' Team (45) complete the top 10.

Authentic's older stablemate Improbable remains out front in the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll with 34 first-place votes and 401 points. The son of City Zip has won three straight Grade 1 contests with his latest triumph coming in the September 26 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita Park.

Champion Maximum Security, runner-up in the Awesome Again Stakes, remains second with 2 first-place votes and 303 points. Tom's d'Etat (2 first-place votes, 249 points) is third followed by multiple Grade 1 winner Vekoma (2 first-place votes, 245 points) and champion Monomoy Girl (1 first-place vote, 213 points).

Multiple graded stakes winner By My Standards remains sixth with 160 points while Authentic (127 points) moves up to seventh – the highest ranking sophomore on the Top Thoroughbred Poll. Tiz the Law (115 points) is eighth followed by Swiss Skydiver (114) and multiple Grade 1 winner Rushing Fall (75).

The NTRA Top Thoroughbred polls are the sport's most comprehensive surveys of experts. Every week eligible journalists and broadcasters cast votes for their top 10 horses, with points awarded on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. All horses that have raced in the U.S., are in training in the U.S., or are known to be pointing to a major event in the U.S. are eligible for the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll. Voting in both the Top Three-Year-Old Poll and the Top Thoroughbred Poll is scheduled to be conducted through the conclusion of the Breeders' Cup in November.

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Tiz The Law Breezes Quick Five Furlongs In :57.87 On Friday At Belmont Park

Sackatoga Stable's New York-bred hero Tiz the Law breezed a bullet five-furlongs in 57.87 seconds on Friday morning at Belmont Park.

Piloted by exercise rider Heather Smullen over the fast main track, the four-time Grade 1-winning son of Constitution worked under overcast skies and light rain in preparation for his next engagement, which is scheduled to take place in the Grade 1, $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic on November 7 at Keeneland.

“I didn't want to see him go that fast, but he came out of the work well,” trainer Barclay Tagg said. “He scoped well and everything is going good with him.”

Tiz the Law has put together a notable sophomore campaign which includes victories in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 28 at Gulfstream Park, the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes on June 20, where he became the first Empire State-bred to win the American Classic in 138 years, and the Grade 1 Runhappy Travers on August 8 at Saratoga Race Course.

Tiz the Law was a last-out second in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby on September 5 at Churchill Downs, which Tagg and Sackatoga won in 2003 with New York-bred Funny Cide.

Tagg said Tiz the Law would likely work back either next Friday or Saturday.

During his juvenile campaign, Tiz the Law was a first-out winner against his New York-bred counterpart exactly one calendar year prior to his Runhappy Travers triumph en route to a score in the Grade 1 Champagne last October at Belmont Park. A $110,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred Yearling Sale, Tiz the Law has amassed $2,615,300 in purse earnings.

Bred in the Empire State by Twin Creeks Farm, Tiz the Law is out of the Tiznow broodmare Tizfiz.

Tagg is poised for a potentially exciting weekend as he will saddle contenders in a pair of graded stakes on Saturday at Belmont.

Hayward Pressman, Diamond M Stable and Donna Pressman's Step Dancer will try open company in the Grade 2, $150,000 Pilgrim at 1 1/16-miles on the turf for juveniles.

Step Dancer posted a 3 ½-length upset win on debut in a 1 1/16-mile maiden event for state-breds over a Mellon turf course at Saratoga rated good. The 2-year-old son of War Dancer came from 11 lengths off the pace to secure the win at 24-1 odds.

“He's a New York-bred and I've had some New York-breds do pretty well against open company,” Tagg quipped. “He won his first start rather easily, so we put him in the Pilgrim.”

Bred in New York by Sugar Plum Farm and Richard Pressman, Step Dancer is out of the English Channel mare Just Be Steppin. Jockey Dylan Davis was up for the debut win and will return aboard Step Dancer from post 7 in the eight-horse field.

Joyce B. Young, Gerald McManis and Jerrie Stewart McManis' Highland Sky will attempt an elusive Grade 1 victory in Saturday's 12-furlong $250,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, a race where he finished fourth in 2018.

The 7-year-old dark bay son of Sky Mesa came close to striking Grade 1 gold during his sophomore campaign, where he was second beaten a neck in the 2016 Belmont Derby Invitational.

An 8 ¼-length winner of last year's John's Call at Saratoga, which was taken off the turf, Highland Sky arrives at the Joe Hirsch off a runner-up placing in the Grade 2 Bowling Green on August 1 at Saratoga.

“He's an old timer now but I've always wanted to win the Joe Hirsch,” Tagg said. “He'll be in pretty tough. He likes soft turf and he likes the mud if they take it off the grass.”

Highland Sky boasts a solid pedigree that Tagg is quite familiar with. He trained the graded stakes-placed dam Kristi With a K, who also produced graded stakes placed Tagg trainee Highland Glory – a full sister to Highland Sky – as well as Grade 1 winners Miss Josh and Bit of Whimsy, and graded stakes winners Highland Springs and Highland Crystal.

“That family has been very good to us over the years,” Tagg said.

Highland Sky boasts lifetime earnings of $781,044 in a 29-5-4-5 career. He will be ridden by Junior Alvarado, who has been aboard the horse for his last two efforts.

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