GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas -- Maybe Azeri should've run in the Breeders' Cup Distaff, not the Classic.

Handlers of the 2002 Horse of the Year opted this week to take on the boys in the Classic, hoping to get another Horse of the Year award and collect a chunk of the $4 million purse. She finished fifth, raising questions of whether she would have been better off in the $2 million Distaff, where she would've been the favorite.

Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day said Azeri overcame some early trouble and still had a shot at making a move -- but couldn't.

"When they took off at the three-eighths pole, she wasn't able to track them down,'' he said. "It was a good effort. There was no disgrace.''

He's right, as Azeri finished ahead of Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone (seventh) and last year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide (10th).

"I thought she ran well,'' trainer D. Wayne Lukas said. "We took our shot, she ran hard and beat a lot of them.''

Azeri fell to 0-for-2 against boys. She was eighth in the Met Mile at Belmont Park.

Fillies are 0-for-3 in the 21-year history of the Classic.

The folks behind Distaff winner Ashado were split about beating an Azeri-less field. Co-owner Jack Wolf and trainer Todd Pletcher were among those glad not to have faced their top challenger.

"We can all go home and speculate whether we would have beat Azeri or Azeri would have beat us,'' Pletcher said. "Who cares, you know? We got the trophy and we will worry about that kind of stuff later. We still get the same check.''

Co-owner Johns Martin said beating Azeri "would have been very special,'' while another co-owner, Paul Saylor, said: "Our horse is a superstar, but how far off the charts would she have been if we had won this one with Azeri in?''