Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile) and Champagne Room (Broken Vow), the Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old male and filly, respectively, are the top-weighted horses in their divisions in The Jockey Club Experimental Free Handicap, released Thursday morning.
The Jockey Club Experimental Free Handicap, published each year since 1935, is a weight-based assessment of the previous year's leading 2-year-olds, with the weights compiled for a hypothetical race at 1 1/16 miles. The list or horses eligible for weighting included any 2-year-old male or female that started in a graded or listed stakes in the United States and Canada in 2016.
Of the eligible 469 horses (239 males and 230 fillies) a total of 227 (109 males and 118 fillies) were assigned weights. The leading sire by number of horses weighted was Tapit with eight (3 males, 5 fillies) followed by Into Mischief (7) with two males and five fillies. A trio of sires were tied with six weighted horses–the late Harlan's Holiday (2/4); More Than Ready (3/3) and War Front (1/5). Among freshman sires, Algorithms (3/0), Gemologist (1/2), Maclean's Music (2/1), The Factor (1/2) and Union Rags (1/2) were each represented by three weighted horses.
The weighting committee of racing secretaries included five this year: P.J. Campo of the Stronach Group, Ben Huffman of Churchill Downs and Keeneland, Steve Lym of Woodbine Entertainment, Martin Panza of The New York Racing Association Inc., and Thomas S. Robbins of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.
Click here for the list of stallions and click here for the weightings..
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