by Jeff Lowe

Nearly two years since being claimed for $50,000, Maryfield completed a remarkable transformation on Friday when she scored a half-length win in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Monmouth Park.

Scheduled to be sold in the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale, the Elusive Quality mare will carry the distinction as the probable first recipient of the Eclipse Award as champion sprinter after rallying from well off the pace over a sloppy and sealed racetrack for first-time Breeders' Cup jockey Elvis Trujillo.

Trainer Doug O’Neill claimed Maryfield on behalf of Mark Gorman, Nick Mestrandrea, Jim Perry, and Mark Verge out of a one-mile turf race in January 2006 at Santa Anita Park.

“This mare has really turned it on amazingly and we just accidentally have learned how she wants to be ridden,” O’Neill said. “In the mornings she is so gifted with speed. When we claimed her we just assumed she was a filly that had to be up toward the front end. It took us about seven starts to figure out that by rushing her off her feet, it takes a lot of run out of her.”

Maryfield won a pair of listed stakes last year after the claim and broke through with a victory in the Distaff Breeders’ Cup Handicap (G2) on March 24 at Aqueduct after being forced to rally when she missed the break. The impromptu change of tactics led to a permanent shift to coming from off the pace, which Maryfield used with precision in winning the Ballerina Stakes (G1) on August 26 at Saratoga. She did not race again before the inaugural Filly and Mare Sprint.

La Traviata, the previously undefeated Grade 3 winner sent off as the 2.10-to-1 favorite, engaged in a torrid duel with second-choice Dream Rush through a half-mile in :44.19. Maryfield, sent off at 8-to-1, rated in seventh before kicking off a wide drive coming out of the turn.

O’Neill registered a Breeders’ Cup win for the third year in a row, after taking the 2005 Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) with Stevie Wonderboy and the ’06 TVG Breeders’ Cup Sprint with Thor's Echo.

“It’s incredible,” O’Neill said. “I just feel very fortunate and realize that I learn something new everyday. I’ve been very blessed the last few years.”

Miraculous Miss, who also is scheduled to be sold at Keeneland November, finished second as a 43.50-to-1 outsider, with Miss Macy Sue another 1 1/2 lengths back in third. Dream Rush faded to fifth, and La Traviata followed in sixth.

For an Equibase chart, click here.

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer