Thoroughbred racing history is chock full of rags-to-riches stories of former claiming horses outperforming the expectations of owners and trainers en route to graded stakes victories and eventual year-end championships.

Maryfield, an Ontario-bred mare by Elusive Quality, now will have her name mentioned along with many other notable claimers after capping a stunningly successful 2007 campaign with a six-wide romp through the sloppy Monmouth Park stretch to capture the inaugural running of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

The tour-de-force performance on racing’s grandest stage garnered Maryfield and her group of owners the inaugural Eclipse Award for champion female sprinter.

Maryfield was claimed as a four-year-old for $50,000 on January 16, 2006, at Santa Anita Park by trainer Doug O’Neill on behalf of Nick Mestrandrea, Jim Perry, and Mark Gorman, who were relative newcomers to the sport.

Maryfield began competing in stakes company midway through the 2006 season, but hit her stride in ’07, winning the Distaff Breeders’ Cup Handicap (G2) at Aqueduct and the Ballerina Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course before solidifying her championship in Monmouth’s mud.