The lights shown bright on Unrivaled Belle's tour de force in the Ladies' Classic (Deborah Kral/Horsephotos.com)

Gary Seidler and Peter Vegso's homebred UNRIVALED BELLE (Unbridled's Song) withstood the late charge of 3-2 favorite Blind Luck (Pollard's Vision) in the $1,818,000 Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic (G1) at Churchill Downs to capture the feature event on Championship Friday by 1 3/4 lengths. With jockey Kent Desormeaux in the pilot's seat, the Bill Mott filly asserted her class in the stretch of the 1 1/8-mile test to stop the clock in 1:50 over the fast dirt.

"I think it was the way (jockey) Kent (Desormeaux) rode her today; the break and the way she settled," Mott praised the rider. "She made an explosive move around the turn leaving the three-eighths pole and just took the lead away from everybody. I just have to give Kent the credit. He pulled the trigger and it worked out. We opened up on the field and left them in her dust."

Malibu Prayer (Malibu Moon) took command when the field broke in the only the second Breeders' Cup contest ever to be run under the illumination of spotlights. Setting splits of :24 3/5 and :49, the Todd Pletcher trainee was tracked by Acting Happy (Empire Maker) and Acoma (Empire Maker) to her outside. Running down along the rail just in behind was Milwaukee Appeal (Milwaukee Brew), and Unrivaled Belle was stalking just to her outside.

Malibu Prayer began feeling the effects of her pacesetting duties and faded just as Unrivaled Belle unleashed her move. The eventual winner angled out four wide into the second turn and grabbed the lead through three-quarters in 1:13 3/5, increasing her advantage in the lane to two lengths as she hit the mile mark in 1:37 4/5. Meanwhile, top sophomore Blind Luck was unleashing her late run, coming back from as much as 11 1/2 lengths out of it on the backstretch. The gleaming miss took dead-aim on Unrivalled Belle and familiar three-year-old nemesis Havre de Grace (Saint Liam), overtaking the latter runner but was unable to get to her elder rival.

Unrivaled Belle refused to be caught by her younger rivals  (Melissa Wirth/Horsephotos.com)

Unrivaled Belle was sent of the 7-1 fourth choice in the 11-horse field and returned $17, $5.80 and $4.20 to her faithful backers. Blind Luck gave back $3.20 and $2.40 as the favorite, and it was another length back to 5-1 third pick Havre de Grace, who paid $4. The exotics offered up $54.80 for the exacta and $215.20 for the trifecta, while the 8-10-11-2 superfecta totaled $3,336.

It was another 7 1/2 lengths back to It's Tea Time (Dynaformer), who ended the superfecta and was followed under the wire by Acoma, Acting Happy, Persistently (Smoke Glacken), Milwaukee Appeal, Seeking the Title (Unbridled's Song) and Malibu Prayer.

Life at Ten (Malibu Moon), the 7-2 second choice, didn't warm up well for the race, according to reports from jockey John Velazquez, and broke sluggishly from her rail post. The Pletcher runner ran in back, well behind even Blind Luck, throughout and was listed as a DNF on the official chart.

"I told him (jockey John Velazquez) when we left the paddock that I was concerned about the way she saddled," Pletcher admitted. "She was abnormally quiet; almost sedated-like. I told him to make sure and warm her up well. Unfortunately, she's either had some sort of allergic reaction to her Lasix treatment or she's had some severe cramps, or tied up before she ever went out there.

Kent Desormeaux waited until the main event to visit the winner's circle on BC Friday (Lauren Pomeroy/Horsephotos.com)

Unrivaled Belle entered this one off a runner-up effort behind Life at Ten in the Beldame S. (G1), and also ran second to that rival in the Ogden Phipps H. (G1) on June 12. Sandwiched in between those two races was a second in the Ruffian Invitational H. (G1) behind Malibu Prayer. The gray lass opened her four-year-old season with a fourth in the La Canada S. (G2) on the synthetic Pro-Ride at Santa Anita, but quickly found the winner's circle when transferred to a conventional dirt surface in the Rampart S. (G3) next out. She followed up with a head defeat of the now retired reigning Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra in the La Troienne S. (G2) over this track.

Unrivaled Belle dropped her career debut, finishing second by a neck, last spring before breaking her maiden by 3 1/4 lengths at Monmouth Park nearly five months later. She added an easy allowance win to her line, then captured her stakes bow when taking the Real Prize S. at Belmont Park by 6 3/4 lengths. The filly made her initial graded foray in the Gazelle S. (G1), running second that day to close out her sophomore campaign. With this score now added to her resume, Unrivaled Belle improved her lifetime mark to 12-6-5-0 and has earned $1,774,929 in earnings.

The Kentucky-bred miss was listed as sold for $260,000 as a Keeneland September Yearling. She is out of multiple Grade 2 victress Queenie Belle (Bertrando) and has a trio of younger half-siblings -- an unraced juvenile colt named Achaemenes (Empire Maker), a yearling filly called Xs Belle (Dynaformer) and an unnamed weanling filly by Lemon Drop Kid.