Mucho Macho Man’s BC Classic win selected as 2013 NTRA Moment of the Year

The win by Mucho Macho Man in the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Classic has been selected in an online poll as the NTRA Moment of the Year, the organizers of the poll announced Friday.

It was relatively easy to understand why Mucho Macho Man’s Classic was handily voted the winner. He won the $5 million race by a nose in a thrilling stretch run. He was ridden by Gary Stevens, the Hall of Fame jockey who came out of retirement earlier in the year at age 50. He is trained by Kathy Ritvo, a heart-transplant survivor who became the first female trainer to win the Classic.

Thirty percent of the respondents selected Much Macho Man’s Classic win among 12 possible contenders. The runner-up, with 18.3 percent of the vote, was an allowance win by the horse Paynter, while third was a race at Pimlico that became a viral video last year after one of the horses in the race, Spicer Cub, bolted to the grandstand rail in the stretch, ran between the rail and the parked starting gate, and then nearly won the race.

Balloting was conducted at the website of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. The NTRA has conducted the poll since 1999. This year’s result was the sixth time that the Breeders’ Cup Classic was selected.