Rival fillies lead NTRA Poll

By: SPORTS NETWORK

New York, NY (Sports Network) - Four-year-old fillies Havre de Grace and Blind Luck hold down the top two spots in the current NTRA Thoroughbred Poll. The two fillies have met five times dating back to last year.

Havre de Grace pulled in 12 first-place votes, an increase of four from last week, and 166 points. Blind Luck, coming off a win in Saturday's Vanity Handicap, moved up one spot to second with two top votes and 143 points.

Both fillies are likely to start in the Delaware Handicap on July 16.

"We had kind of targeted the Delaware Handicap because it's a big purse," said Blind Luck's trainer Jerry Hollendorfer on Saturday, "But depending on how everything goes we might wait for Del Mar. I'm not opposed to the synthetic, but I think earlier in the year she might not have gotten tracks that she liked and her feet might have been bugging her a little. I think she's 100 percent today. I'm so pleased to have a horse that's lasted like this and kept her enthusiasm for racing."

The two fillies met this past March in the Azeri at Oaklawn Park where Havre de Grace defeated Blind Luck by 3 1/4 lengths. That was the second win over Blind Luck for the Fox Hill Farm filly in five meetings. Last year, they faced each other four times with Blind Luck winning twice and Havre de Grace once. In the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic, Blind Luck was second and Havre de Grace third behind the recently retired Unrivaled Belle.

Six-year-old horse Tizway dropped to third in the rankings with two first- place votes and 128 points.

Twirling Candy gained a spot in the poll to fourth with two top votes and 81 points. The colt is followed by Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom (75), Game On Dude (57), Awesome Maria (52), Goldikova (49), Get Stormy (41) and First Dude (40).

Goldikova, who lost last week at Royal Ascot, received the remaining first- place vote.