Correas Back In Distaff With 'Prize' Possession

Argentinian racing has a storied history. As arguably the most racing-obsessed country in South America, it features the Hipodromo de San Isidro, one of the biggest racetracks in the Americas which has attracted crowds up to 100,000 going all the way back to its construction in 1935, and stalwart, high quality breeding programs that have produced champions in the United States for decades. It is because of that history, and his family's part in it, that trainer Ignacio Correas is back in the Breeders' Cup for the second straight year with his GI Longines Distaff contender Blue Prize (Arg) (Pure Prize), a millionaire who has won at the top level in both of the countries Correas calls home.

Born in 1959 in Buenos Aires, Correas is the fourth of his name, in a family that has been breeding racehorses since the 19th century. The first, Don Ignacio Correas, traveled to England in 1906, bought English Triple Crown winner Diamond Jubilee from Sandringham Stud for 30,000 pounds and brought him back to Argentina, where he would become a foundational stallion for the nascent racing land.

“I always liked racing,” said Ignacio the fourth, affectionately known as “Nacho”. “I went to the jockey school, I did everything possible to be around horses.”

Soon growing too tall for a career as a rider, Correas left college after a year to get into what his family had done best: breeding. Working as an assistant manager for the esteemed Haras Santa Maria de Araras farm in Brazil, he still found himself unfulfilled and, after visiting Europe and experiencing its vibrant racing scene, he decided to make a change. Feeling like he needed more of a payoff for his work, he went into training.

“You get results quicker,” Correas said of his decision to head to the track. “In the breeding business, to know if a stallion is good, you need at least five years. In this business, you have 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, and the hopes renew every year.”

Correas won his first race, a stake, in 1983. He eventually grew his stable to number over 100 head and trained Festin (Arg) (Mat-Boy {Arg}), who went on to become a dual Grade I winner in America. Due to an economic recession in Argentina, he jumped to the U.S. in 2002 and settled in Lexington a year later.

Having to work his way up again, he took odd jobs, including exercise riding, before being hired as Bill Currin's assistant in California and later as the farm trainer for Sagamore Farm. Going back out on his own in 2015, his success has grown every year, and he has so far trained a half-dozen graded stakes winners. But there's one who has taken Correas's career to heights he couldn't have ever dreamed of in Argentina.

Receiving a call one day from Peter Bance, manager for John Moores and Charles Noell's Merribelle Stable, Correas was told that he had been recommended to train a lightly-raced potential star in Argentina who they were going to import to America. The recommendation came from Argentinian breeder/owner/bloodstock agent Ignacio Pavlovsky, who Correas knew well.

“I won my first race for Ignacio's father,” Correas said. “It was a longtime family connection. His father was a friend of my father's, I worked for his father, he worked for me.”

Correas called up Blue Prize's trainer, legendary Argentinian horseman Jorge Mayansky Neer, to get the scoop.

“Her trainer in Argentina was a friend of mine and when I got her, he told me, 'This is the best filly that I've ever had.' And he's won Eclipse Awards in Argentina so coming from him, that was something serious,” Correas remembered.

A Group 1 winner in Argentina with another narrow Group 1 miss to her credit from just four starts, Blue Prize brought high expectations when she made her Stateside debut in June of 2017. Running well every time, she couldn't quite get over the hump, finishing second in four of her first five tries. Then came the 2017 GII Falls City H. at Churchill Downs, where everything came together to the tune of an 8 1/2-length romp. From there, she was off, racking up three stakes wins in her next four starts. But the best was yet to come.

Overcoming the 11-post–the same draw she'll have in Saturday's Distaff–Blue Prize rallied to victory in the GI Juddmonte Spinster S., giving Correas his first American Grade I victory, right in his own backyard at Keeneland.

“That was the most important moment for my career,” Correas said. “My son was here working with me, my whole family was here, I still have the same team and I'm very proud of them. And my home is Keeneland, so to win one of the most prestigious Grade Is at Keeneland [with a horse] that comes from a family background of breeders, I don't know what could be better than that. It's not that easy, it's a short meet, we all want to win. I live a mile from the track. It's my home.”

Drawing wide again in last year's Distaff at Churchill, Blue Prize was not away all that sharply, but laid closer to the pace than normal and took a good run at winner and eventual champion Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) before just fading late to finish fourth.

“She was training super and we all thought we could win it all, so it probably was a little bit of overconfidence,” Correas said of their strategy. “And Monomoy Girl was the horse to beat, so we went after her and we couldn't quite make it.”

Winless in her first three starts of 2019, Blue Prize got back on track in the Summer Colony S. Aug. 18 at Saratoga. She then returned home to take potentially her last run at Keeneland–Blue Prize is slated to sell as Hip 98 as a racing or broodmare prospect at Fasig-Tipton November–in defense of her Spinster title and recreated the magic, rallying from last to beat odds-on Elate (Medaglia d'Oro) by a half-length.

“I think that when you can do something like that, you forget about all the sacrifices that you've made, or mostly that your family's made for you,” Correas said. “And to repeat it with the same filly.”

Now comes Blue Prize's possible career finale, and with it, a second chance at a first Breeders' Cup win for Correas. This time, with another imposing favorite in presumptive champion Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute), but one that likely won't be on the lead, Correas plans to let his star pupil do her thing.

“What we've discovered is that if you go through her best races, it's when she's laying 4-5 lengths off the pace instead of being in the firing line, stalking the pace,” he said. “This year, trip is going to mean a lot. There's a lot of speed in the race so we'll see. We have confidence that we're gonna run a big race.”

That confidence is well founded for a horse who has finished first or second in 17 of 22 career starts and only once out of the money. Because when it came to Blue Prize, it was Correas's friend Mayansky Neer who had the greatest insight of all.

“He always told me that she's not going to be a good work horse, she's not going to be brilliant in the mornings, but she's going to be great in the afternoons,” Correas said. “He was right, in every piece of what he said. She's tough, and she's a hard trier. She always tries.”