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Ontario-bred six-year-old Maryfield, at 8 to 1 odds, kicked off the Breeders' Cup program at Monmouth Park by winning the first running of the $1-million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint Friday.

The six furlongs was run in 1:09.85 on a sloppy track as jockey Elvis Trujillo brought her from off the pace to defeat 43-to-1 Miraculous Miss by one-half length.

It was the first of 11 Breeders' Cup races, three of which were run Friday before a crowd of 27,803 with the other eight to be run Saturday.

Maryfield who was bred by Mike Carroll of Guelph, Ont., and John C. Harvey Jr., began her career at Toronto's Woodbine but was claimed in January of 2006 for $50,000 at Santa Anita Park in California from trainer Josie Carroll.

It was the third Breeders' Cup victory for Doug O'Neill who trains the mare for U.S. owners Mark Gorman, Nick Mestrandrea, Jim Perry and Mark Verge. Mestrandrea became interested in horse racing when he worked on the set of the movie Seabiscuit as a caterer.

In the other two Breeders' races run Friday, Nownownow won the first $1-million Juvenile Turf at one mile on a yielding surface and Corinthian won the first $1-milliion Dirt Mile by 6 ½ lengths.

O'Neill said Maryfield became more successful early after it was discovered by accident that her preferred running style is to come from off the pace.

"She's so amazingly gifted with speed," O'Neill said. "When we claimed her we just assumed she was a filly that had to be up near the front end. And she's such a tall, big, good-looking filly, it's amazing, it took us about seven starts to figure it out.

"She's so big that by rushing her off her feet, it just takes a lot of run out of her and by just letting her break and settle, she's so much more giving late and I wish we would have figured that out a while back."

O'Neill said he knew she would handle the sloppy track but wondered if the six furlongs would not be far enough for her.

"We claimed so many horses and so many of them don't turn out," O'Neill said. "This just happened to be the one, fortunately, that has turned out the right way."

Maryfield was seventh after one-quarter of a mile that was run in 21.29 seconds by second favourite Dream Rush which finished fifth. Maryfield was sixth after one-half mile run in 44.19 by Dream Rush and was fourth in the stretch before passing the field on the outside nearing the finish.

Miss Macy Sue was third.

In a supporting event, Woodbine trainer Reade Baker sent out Jazz Nation to finish second in a $250,000 six-furlong Favorite Trick Stakes for two-year-olds won by Margo's Gift by 1 ½ lengths in 1:10.19.