Thoroughbred

The story of Maryfield’s rise from the claiming ranks at Woodbine to Gr. 1 winner at Saratoga to the Breeders’ Cup at Monmouth and finally the inaugural Eclipse Award for female sprinters reads like it came straight from a Hollywood script. But the tale of the Canadian-bred daughter of Elusive Quality out of the stakes-placed Desert Wine mare Sly Maid, wasn’t dreamed up by a group of writers trying to create the next feel-good movie of the year. Maryfield’s exploits are 100 per cent nonfiction and were played out at Woodbine and racetracks from California to New York, Kentucky, Florida and New Jersey in 2006 and 2007.

She was bred in Ontario by Mike Carroll and John C. Harvey Jr., and was owned by James and Alice Sapara of Edmonton, AB, who won the Queen’s Plate with Edenwold in 2006 for trainer Josie Carroll. Carroll trained Maryfield during her first 10 starts as a juvenile in 2005 at Woodbine, winning three of them before losing her via a claim to trainer Doug O’Neill at Santa Anita in her first start as a three-year-old in January 2006.

Her new owners were the Empire Stable’s Nick Mestrandrea, Mark Verge, Mark Gorman and James Perry. Maryfield went to the post 10 times in 2006, winning the Flower Girl Handicap at Santa Anita and the Very Subtle Stakes at Churchill Downs. During that season she returned to Woodbine and finished second in the Seaway Stakes.

During her championship season of 2007 she won the Gr. 2 Distaff Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Aqueduct and the Gr. 1 Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga before her upset victory over a sloppy track at Monmouth in the inaugural running of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. She was five wide at the top of the stretch before splashing from the back of the pack to win by a half-length over Miraculous Miss. Maryfield’s lifetime record was 9-5-1 from 28 starts and earnings of $1,334,331.

Following her Breeders’ Cup win Maryfield was purchased by the Southern Equine Stables of Michael Moreno and trainer Eric Guillot for $1.25 million at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November Select Mixed sale. Bred to leading sire A.P. Indy in 2008, Maryfield delivered a healthy bay colt in February of 2009.