Manchego, a returning Dan Patch Award winner who won the Arthur J. Cutler Memorial in her 2021 debut, is the No. 1-ranked horse in this season’s first Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll. The six-year-old female trotter received 20 of 35 first-place votes. Six-year-old male pacer This Is The Plan, the MGM Borgata Series champion and the sport’s leading money-winner, was second in the rankings. He was followed by four-year-old male trotter Its Academic, three-year-old male pacer Abuckabett Hanover, and six-year-old female pacer Machnhope in rounding out the top five. Its Academic counts the Charlie Hill Memorial among his wins while Machnhope was the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series champion. Abuckabett Hanover handed Perfect Sting his first career loss in a division of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes earlier this month.