Blue Prize wins Keeneland's Spinster on road less traveled

Blue Prize proved erratic, but just good enough, to win Sunday's Grade 1, $500,000 Spinster Stakes and march ahead to the Breeders' Cup Distaff run Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs.

In a race where the Top 2 choices, both 3-year-olds, missed the board, Blue Prize looked much the best until the eighth pole. She swerved to the center of the track under jockey Joe Bravo but managed to hold on by 3/4 of a length while widest of them all.

The chart says Blue Prize shied from the shadow of the rail. As for her jockey's thoughts?

"She got lonely," Bravo quipped. "She made the race exciting, didn't she?"

Champagne Problems dashed up the rail for second with Pacific Wind third.

Trained by Ignacio Correas, Blue Prize is a Churchill specialist with wins in her last three starts there. In her career, the 5-year-old daughter of Pure Prize has never finished outside of the exacta under the Twin Spires.

The victory was the Argentina native Correas' first in Grade 1 company.

"It means a lot," he said. "It's been a tough road for me and my family, but I guess we all believed in ourselves and we have to thank this great country that gives us opportunities to thrive if you work hard and try. It's very tough to put it in words."

Favored Eskimo Kisses was last off the turn, with the last-out Alabama Stakes (G1) winner failing to fire on the cut back to 1 1/8 miles. Blue Prize went the distance in a final time of 1:50.01, emerging from a tightly bunched pack.

“We’ll wait a few days to see if anything surfaces that we can attribute (her performance) to," said Eskimo Kisses trainer Kenny McPeek. "We are proud of her. It is different game going from (racing against just) 3-year-olds to racing against older horses. It is not easy to jump to that next level.”

Campaigned by Merriebelle Stable, Blue Prize improved her record to 7-7-1 in 16 career starts. The former Group 1 winner in her native Argentina is incredibly consistent, with her only finish worse than third coming in last March's Azeri Stakes (G2) at Oaklawn Park.