2018 Eclipse Awards: Unique Bella

Unique Bella was special right from the start.

“We thought she was a good one right away,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said, reflecting on her works as an unraced juvenile in summer 2016.

She was a gray blueblood – sired by Tapit, produced by Breeders’ Cup winner Unrivaled Belle. The hope was that Unique Bella would run to her pedigree. It turned out, she accomplished a lot more.

In 2017, Unique Bella was named champion female sprinter, and in 2018 her four-start campaign for Hollendorfer, jockey Mike Smith, and owner Don Alberto Stable propelled her to be an Eclipse Award finalist as 2018 champion older dirt female.

Though she made just 12 career starts, Unique Bella almost always showed up, winning nine races and going 3 for 4 in 2018, her final season.

:: 2018 Eclipse Finalists: Profiles and photos for all categories

The year began in sensational style. Unique Bella was favored at 1-10 in the Grade 2 Santa Maria on Feb. 10 at Santa Anita.

Once the gates opened and Unique Bella made the lead, the 1 1/16-mile race was over. She won by nine lengths and got a 109 Beyer, highest of the year by a filly or mare on dirt.

Although Unique Bella was special, she was not perfect. One weakness was her behavior in the starting gate, and the flaw surfaced April 13 at Oaklawn Park, where she was odds-on in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap.

“She was always a little bit funny in the gate,” Hollendorfer said. “We did take her and stand her in the gate, but when she got in the gate on race day, she sat down just as they sprung it.”

Unique Bella blew the start by several lengths. She regained stride, rushed forward to chase the pace from second, made the lead after a half and briefly crept away on the far turn. But the start was too much to overcome, and Unbridled Mo rolled past. Somehow, Unique Bella held second.

“Actually, that might have been her best race,” Hollendorfer said.

Unique Bella returned home and targeted the Grade 1 Beholder Mile on June 2 at Santa Anita. She was favored again at odds-on, facing a formidable front-running rival in Paradise Woods. The race looked like a match race on paper, and Smith rode Unique Bella accordingly.

He and Unique Bella applied pace pressure from the outside as she and Paradise Woods sizzled the opening half-mile in a blazing 44.96 seconds. Unique Bella put away Paradise Woods at the head of the lane, opened up four lengths in the stretch, and won by 2 1/4 lengths.

Unique Bella scored the third Grade 1 of her career in July at Del Mar, winning the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes by a half-length. In August, she chipped a sesamoid while working five furlongs at Del Mar and was retired.

Unique Bella is scheduled to be bred to Medaglia d’Oro. She retires having won nine races and $1,272,400 from 12 starts.