PA Derby Winner Saudi Crown Moves Into Top 10 in Classic Rankings

Saudi Crown ridden by Florent Geroux won the $1,000,000 Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx. (Nikki Sherman/EQUI-PHOTO)

Arcangelo Maintains Overall Lead Following Week #11 Voting

Jim Gluckson/Breeders’ Cup

LEXINGTON, Ky. ― FMQ Stables’ Pennsylvania Derby (G1) winner Saudi Crown has moved into the top 10 in the latest Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic Rankings, while Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Arcangelo maintains the overall lead following the 11^th week of voting. The Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic Rankings are a weekly rating of the top 10 horses in contention for the $6 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), which will be run Nov. 4 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California.

Saudi Crown captured Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile Pennsylvania Derby for 3-year-olds from gate to wire over a sloppy track for his third win in five starts. Trained by Brad Cox, the gray son of Always Dreaming rose from 17^th place to eighth with 111 votes. Blue Rose Farm’s Arcangelo leads the poll for the fifth consecutive week with 333 votes, registering 25 first-place votes. Fellow 3-year-olds Geaux Rocket Ride, with 276 votes, and FanDuel Racing Pacific Classic Stakes (G1) winner Arabian Knight, who earned 265 votes, are in second and third place, respectively.

C2 Racing Stable, LLC, and La Milagrosa Stable, LLC’s White Abarrio, who won Saratoga’s WhitneyStakes (G1), is fourth with 247 votes. Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable’s Forte, who was second in the Belmont and won the Jim Dandy Stakes (G2),ranks fifth with 152 votes. Godolphin’s 5-year-old Proxy, runner-up in the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1),maintains sixth place with 131 votes. Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable’s 4-year-old Bright Future, winner of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, is seventh with 126 votes.

Following the eighth-place Saudi Crown isRyotokuji Kenji Holdings Co. Ltd.’s Ushba Tesoro (JPN). The Dubai World Cup (G1) winner is ninth with 69 votes. Mage, winner of the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), is 10^th with 59 votes.

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. 10. A list of voting members can be found here.

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

Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic Rankings – Sept. 26, 2023*