IGNACIO Correas IV felt much the same as Colebrook after sending out Merriebelle Stable’s Blue Prize to win the Grade 1 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes a day later.

Correas won an impressive five times at the highest level in Argentina before coming to America in 2001.

He thanked Merrebelle’s John Moores and Charles Noell for sending the daughter of Pure Prize to his barn prior to her four-year-old season and for trusting a trainer not far removed from leaving his job as a private trainer for Sagamore Farm with only two horses in his care.

“It’s very special,” Correas said of his first North American Grade 1 score.

“It’s also for the people who gave the filly to me. They trusted me with this filly that was a very expensive filly in my country.

“At the time they gave me this filly I don’t know that everybody would trust a trainer that had like 25, 30 horses at the time.”

Like Colebrook, Correas came close in several Grade 1s in the past. He trained 2012 Preakness starter Tiger Walk and nearly won the 2016 Arlington Million with Kasaqui. Correas also sent out Dona Bruja to a second-place finish in the Grade 1 First Lady on Saturday.

Blue Prize raced in eighth position early after jockey Joe Bravo managed to save ground from the extreme outside post in the field of 11 fillies and mares. Blue Prize made steady progress toward the front up the backstretch and around the far turn before taking the lead in the stretch.

HAPPY ENDING

Ahead by two lengths with a furlong to run, Blue Prize looked home free until she veered out, losing ground and opening up a huge hole on the inside for eventual runner-up Champagne Problems.

Bravo kept the mare together late and they held on by three-quarters of a length.

“I said ‘be careful, when she gets on the lead and has a long way to go she might get bored’,” Correas said. “It caught me by surprise, too. Thank God there’s a happy ending. Everything finished well.”

Blue Prize still requires a supplement to run in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff even though the Spinster guaranteed her spot in the race as a “Win and You’re In” event.

Correas relishes the idea of bringing the mare back to Churchill, where she’s three-for-five with two seconds.

Even more so he relished the opportunity to shine on the home stage, winning one of Keeneland’s signature races in front of a large and appreciative crowd.

thankful

“It’s very important and I’m very thankful,” he said. “We’re thankful for this country, that if you work hard you get an opportunity.

“I’m very thankful for the team that I have, for the people that surround me and for the effort my family put with me to get here.

“It wasn’t one day, it was 18 years of hard working. Not all the time was very pretty. I also have to be thankful to Lexington. This is my second time in Lexington.

“Most of the people don’t know that my first time I was completely unknown, it was always a city that welcomed me very well and that’s why I came back.

“When I didn’t have a job I said, ‘I’m going to go back to Lexington.’ I always felt this was home for me.”