Lyons Sentinel won last weekend’s Dayton Distaff Derby with a track-record performance and strengthened her position at the top of the Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll.
The four-year-old mare added seven first-place votes and increased her lead over second-place Venerable to 41 points, an increase of 19 points.
Venerable did not race last week.
Test Of Faith and Charlie May, both Bluegrass Stakes winners last week, also enjoyed substantial increases to their points this week. Test Of Faith added 72 points, pushing her total to 225, and jumped from sixth to No. 3 in the poll. Charlie May gained 60 points and moved into the Top 10, landing at No. 7 with 92 points.
Charlie May was the only newcomer to the Top 10. Bella Bellini dropped out.
The remainder of the Top 10 was idle last week except for Hot Mess Express, who qualified in 1:49.1 at Red Mile.
The Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll does not determine Horse of the Year. The members of the U.S. Harness Writers Association vote on all Dan Patch Award division winners plus Trotter of the Year, Pacer of the Year and Horse of the Year.
The final poll will be Nov. 30 following the completion of the Grand Circuit season.
Rankings based on the votes of harness racing media representatives on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown Standardbred Poll: Week 20 – 10/5/2021
| Rank | Name (First Votes) | A/S/G | Record | Earnings (USD) | Points | Pvs |
| 1 | Lyons Sentinel (24) | 4mp | 15-9-1-2 | $601,183 | 332 | 1 |
| 2 | Venerable (4) | 2ft | 8-8-0-0 | $861,945 | 291 | 2 |
| 3 | Test Of Faith (1) | 3fp | 12-10-2-0 | $551,739 | 225 | 6 |
| 4 | Captain Corey (3) | 3ct | 7-5-1-0 | $758,695 | 202 | 3 |
| 5 | Allywag Hanover (2) | 4gp | 15-8-2-0 | $606,950 | 185 | 4 |
| 6 | Manchego | 6mt | 9-6-0-1 | $421,596 | 122 | 5 |
| 7 | Charlie May (1) | 3gp | 16-8-5-0 | $569,525 | 92 | — |
| 8 | Niki Hill | 2pf | 5-5-0-0 | $258,814 | 82 | 8 |
| 9 | King Of The North | 2ct | 8-6-1-0 | $568,665 | 70 | 7 |
| 10 | Hot Mess Express | 3fp | 11-9-1-0 | $428,634 | 66 | 9 |
ALSO: Sea Silk 54; Bella Bellini 42; Jujubee 33; When Dovescry 24; Lou’s Pearlman 22; Atlanta 17; Winning Ticket 14; Back Of The Neck 9; Altar 8; Perfect Sting 7; Fire Start Hanover, Prohibition Legal 5; Ocean Rock, This Is The Plan, Warrawee Vital 3; Gulf Shores, Herculisa 2; Ahundreddollarbill, Dover In Motion, Fulfullnmydestiny, Scarlett Hanover, So Much More 1.
(USTA)
Nearly all of the horses in
Nearly all of the horses in each week's poll race almost exclusively at 1 mile or 7/8 mile tracks. I think that in order for a horse to be named HOTY, it must race at least once on a half-mile track and at least once on a 5/8- mile track. Every single year, the connections of the top 3yo's skip entering their charges in The Messenger or The Yonkers Trot, out of fear that their horse may have to start from the 8-PP on this half-mile track. If a horse's owner wants to cherry-pick which races that he enters his horse in, that's his prerogative, but should he do so, since the horse will never display how versatile it is, it has no business being named HOTY. The owners would still get to choose which smaller tracks, and which races, that their horse would compete in. When colleges are picked and seeded to compete in the annual NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, preference is given to teams that played difficult non-conference schedules over teams that played easy ones. Shouldn't harness racing be the same way?