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Fiery Pursuit leads all the way in Louisville

Fiery Pursuit burned up the track at Churchill (Patrick Tyrrell/Horsephotos.com) Overbrook Farm's homebred FIERY PURSUIT (Carson City) earned her first stakes win with a wire-to-wire tally in Friday's $328,200 Louisville Breeders' Cup S. (G2), holding on in the final strides for a head decision over the late-running Asi Siempre (El Prado [Ire]). Sent off the longest shot at nearly 12-1 in the six-horse field, Fiery Pursuit shot to the front under Calvin Borel and brushed the rail entering the first turn, but the D. Wayne Lukas-trained filly never skipped a beat. She established moderate splits in :23 4/5, :47 4/5 and 1:12 under a clear advantage, passing the mile mark in the stretch in 1:37 with a 1 1/2-length lead. Asi Siempre appeared to have her rival measured as she gradually reduced the margin through the final sixteenth of a mile, but she could never catch Fiery Pursuit, who completed 1 1/16 miles over the sloppy track in 1:44. "I told Calvin that we're probably overmatched in here and that he better send her to the front and keep there as long as he can," Lukas said. "She ran a tremendous race. I think (Borel) picked her up in the last 100 yards and carried her. This was a quantum leap for her." Borel, who will ride Street Sense (Street Cry [Ire]) in the Kentucky Derby (G1), won three races on the Kentucky Oaks (G1) undercard, all with longshots.

"Mr. Lukas wanted her on the lead, even if I had to use her to get it," Borel explained. "Once she made the lead, she settled for me."

The chestnut filly paid $25.60, $7.80 and $4.40 and keyed the $112 exacta with the 5-2 second choice, who was good for $4 and $3. Baghdaria (Royal Academy) loomed as a presence on the far outside in the stretch but lacked the necessary rally at 6-1, checking in third, three parts of a length back of Asi Siempre. Show returned $4.60. The trifecta totaled $435.80, and the 5-1-2-4 superfecta, with 6-5 favorite Indian Vale (A.P. Indy) another 1 3/4 lengths back in fourth, was $1,155.60. Delicate Dynamite (Old Trieste) and Lemons Forever (Lemon Drop Kid) rounded out the order of finish. Sugar Shake (Awesome Again) was scratched.

Bred in the Bluegrass State, Fiery Pursuit hails from the unraced Private Account mare Engaging, who is a half-sister to champion Flanders (Seeking the Gold), dam of champion Surfside (Seattle Slew). Engaging is also the dam of the multiple stakes-placed Space Cruise (Cape Canaveral) and a yearling filly by Distorted Humor. Fiery Pursuit entered the Louisville off a third-place finish in the Bayakoa S. at Oaklawn Park, her best stakes finish from three previous attempts, and she improved her overall mark to 12-5-0-2, $331,049.

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