Mike Brunker Horse racing editor • Profile • E-mail

ELMONT, N.Y. - Among a parade of Breeders' Cup upsets on Saturday, Pleasant Home — the biggest long shot of the day at better than 30-1 — romped to a 9 ¼-length victory in the Distaff.

Ashado, who won this event last year and was racing for the final time in her Hall of Fame career, was edged by Society Selection for second.  The 4-year-old Ashado needed to finish first or second to pass Azeri as the all-time leading money winner among fillies and mares.

“I would have liked to have sent her out with a win but you could never be disappointed with the career this filly has had,” said Todd Pletcher, the trainer for Ashado.

A first or second place in the 1 1/8th-mile race for 3-year-olds and up would have catapulted Ashado’s total past Azeri’s winnings of $4,079,820.

Slide show   The Breeders' Cup See images from the 2005 World Thoroughbreds Championships at Belmont Park.

Ashado, the 2-1 favorite, was running on her favorite track and coming off an Oct. 1 victory in the Beldame here. Before her final appearance, the 4-year-old had won four of her six races at Belmont. It was the third Breeders’ Cup appearance for Ashado, who will now turn her attention to breeding instead of competing.

Trained by Shug McGaughey and owned by the Phipps Stable, Pleasant Home saved ground until hitting the turn, when she began a quick move that carried her out turning for home. By the time she hit the top of the stretch, she was in front and widening her lead with every stride. Society Selection checked in second, getting a neck past Ashado, the 5-2 favorite in the field.

Pleasant Home sent her fans running for their $63.50 payoffs as she coasted past he wire in  1:48.34.

“When I entered the turn, I knew I had so much horse, I knew I was going to win,” jockey Cornelius Velazquez said.

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The victory was the ninth Breeders’ Cup win for McGaughey, the ninth for the various Phipps family groupings and the second for jockey Cornelio Velasquez, who also piloted 2003 Sprint winner Cajun Beat.

“I don’t bet, so the (longshot odds are) not a big thing to me, but I certainly didn’t expect this,” McGaughey said.

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