TIZNOW'S BREEDERS' CUP CLASSIC VICTORY OVER SAKHEE VOTED 2001 NTRA MOMENT OF THE YEAR

The dramatic finish of last year's Breeders' Cup Classic featuring Tiznow and European star Sakhee has been voted the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Moment of the Year. Tiznow's connections will be honored at the Eclipse Award Dinner on February 18 in Miami Beach with the "NTRA Moment of the Year" award. Balloting was conducted at the NTRA Web site, ntra.com, and offered voters 10 different images illustrating a wide range of human emotions as well as outstanding displays of equine athleticism. The images and events that fans chose from were:

• "Seabiscuit" moves into the top spot on The New York Times Bestseller list
• Monarchos wins the Kentucky Derby in the second swiftest renewal ever
• Point Given rolls to a devastating 12¼-lengths victory in the Belmont Stakes
• Bobby Frankel wins two Grade I races on opposite coasts on the same day, both via disqualification (Aptitude, Senure)
• Point Given wins his fourth straight Grade I, million-dollar race in the Travers Stakes
• The Thoroughbred racing industry raises over $13 million in support of September 11th victims
• Squirtle Squirt breaks the Breeders' Cup jinx for Bobby Frankel in the Penske Auto Centers Breeders' Cup Sprint
• Undefeated colt Johannesburg shocks Officer and others, drawing away to win the Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile
• Foreign invaders capture a third straight race in the World Thoroughbred Championships as Fantastic Light wins the Breeders' Cup Turf for Team Godolphin
• Tiznow takes the Breeders' Cup Classic for a second straight year, coming back against Arc winner Sakhee

The Tiznow/Sakhee Moment received 53% of the vote, finishing well ahead of Point Given's Belmont Stakes victory, which came in second in the balloting. Tiznow and Point Given are two of the three finalists, along with Johannesburg, for 2001 Horse of the Year.

This is the second consecutive "NTRA Moment of the Year" award for Tiznow. Last year, the stretch run of the 2000 Breeders' Cup Classic, which saw Tiznow hold on for a dramatic victory over Giant's Causeway, was selected as the winner. The first-ever "NTRA Moment of the Year" was the touching scene involving Charismatic and jockey Chris Antley following the 1999 Belmont Stakes.

"The NTRA Moment of the Year award is a great way for the fans to play an active role in the Eclipse Awards ceremony," said Keith Chamblin, NTRA senior vice president-industry relations and marketing. "The Tiznow-Sakhee stretch duel was clearly a moment to remember and years from now, racing fans will look back and recall the stretch duel between Tiznow and Sakhee as one of the most exciting races in Breeders' Cup history, complete with all of the international flavor and spectacle synonymous with the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships."

As part of the "NTRA Moment of the Year" contest, Melissa Santini, a 30-year-old accounting and human resource manager from Tampa, Florida, was selected at random from among those voting for the winning moment. Santini and her husband Greg, both avid racing fans, will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the Eclipse Awards. "It was such an emotional race," Santini said of the Breeders' Cup Classic. "I had bet on Tiznow and my husband had bet Sakhee. He was certain in midstretch that Sakhee would win, but I told him, 'You better hold onto yourself, Tiznow can still do it.' It was the climax of a very exciting day. We just love horseracing."

The NTRA is a broad-based coalition of horseracing interests, including the American Quarter Horse Association, charged with increasing popularity of horseracing and improving economic conditions for industry participants. The NTRA and Breeders' Cup Limited also conduct the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, Thoroughbred racing's year-end Championships consisting of eight races and $13 million in purses and awards, and the Breeders' Cup Stakes Program, both of which are funded by the industry's owners and breeders. The NTRA has offices in Lexington, Ky., and New York City. A compendium of NTRA press releases appears on the NTRA Web site, www.ntra.com, and at the Web site for the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, breederscup.com. Contact the NTRA at ntra@ntra.com.