Blue Prize Wins Fleur de Lis to Earn Breeders’ Cup Berth

June 16th, 2018 by Claire Crosby

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Blue Prize won the Fleur de Lis Handicap at Churchill Downs on June 16 to qualify for the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff. (Coady Photography)

An affinity for Churchill Downs should serve Blue Prize well come November, and it came in handy June 16 as well.

On a surface where she's never been worse than second, Merriebelle Stable's 5-year-old mare employed a perfect stalk-and-pounce technique to win the $200,000 Fleur de Lis Handicap, a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series "Win and You're In" race for the Nov. 3 Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff at the Louisville track.

Multiple graded stakes winner Farrell set out for the early lead in the 1 1/8-mile race, and jockey Jose Ortiz had Blue Prize tucked in along the rail in fourth. Blue Prize fanned five wide coming out of the far turn and wore down Farrell in midstretch to win by 1 ½ lengths.

"She was in a good spot the whole way," Ortiz said. "She broke well and saved all the ground. When we passed the three-eighths pole, I started working to take her out, and I knew I had a lot of horse under me. She's very tactical. She can be close or she can be third, fourth, or fifth, just depending how fast they go in front of me."

The final time was 1:50.02 on a fast track.

Blue Prize and jockey Jose Ortiz. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Farrell gamely held second, three lengths clear of third-place Mopotism. The order of finish was completed by Awestruck, Song of Spring, Valadorna, Fuhriously Kissed, Streamline, and Apologynotaccepted.

Trainer Ignacio Correas IV said that the Fleur de Lis’ distance and surface are right up Blue Prize's alley. The chestnut mare entered Saturday’s race off a runner-up finish in the May 18 Allaire DuPont Distaff Stakes at Pimlico Race Course after winning the April 15 Top Flight Invitational Stakes at Aqueduct. At the end of her 4-year-old season, she took the Falls City Handicap at Churchill, her first win in North America. She won a Group 1 in her native Argentina in 2016 before she was imported to the United States.

"There's no doubt that she loves Churchill, and we love that she loves Churchill, so we'll try to keep her around here and wait for the Breeders' Cup," he said. "We know that she loves this place, and that is a little bit of an advantage to give us an edge. (The Distaff is) going to be a very tough race.

"She's very consistent when she goes a mile and an eighth or longer. She needs distance, that's all she needs."

Blue Prize improved her record to 5 wins, 7 seconds, and 1 third from 14 starts, with earnings of $605,233.