2019 Eclipse Awards: Uni

A month before the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, the partnership that owns Uni spent $100,000 for a supplemental nomination to the famous race.

The hefty fee turned out to be a heckuva 10-1 bet. For her win in the BC Mile, Uni earned $1.1 million.

Uni ran arguably the best race of her remarkable career to win the BC Mile against a field largely consisting of males. The victory secured her place among the finalists for the Eclipse Award for the nation’s outstanding turf female of 2019.

:: Full list of 2019 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Trained by Chad Brown for Michael Dubb, Head of Plains Partners, Robert LaPenta, and Bethlehem Stables, Uni won 3 of 4 starts and earned $1,455,000 in 2019.

The only blemish in her brief campaign was a third behind Got Stormy and Raging Bull in the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga on Aug. 10. Got Stormy, a 4-year-old filly in 2019, also is a finalist for the outstanding turf female award.

Uni, a British-bred mare by More Than Ready, had a perfect four-race campaign in 2018, highlighted by a win in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar in early December, her final start of the year. The Matriarch win set the tone for 2019. Expectations were understandably high.

Uni opened her 2019 season with a predictable win in the minor Perfect Sting Stakes at Belmont Park on June 29 as the 1-2 favorite. She was the 8-5 favorite in the Fourstardave Handicap against males, but raced in traffic and finished 2 1/2 lengths behind Got Stormy.

Nearly two months later, at Keeneland on Oct. 5, Uni won the Grade 1 First Lady Stakes at a mile on turf in course-record time of 1:32.87. She took the lead in the final furlong and won by 2 1/2 lengths over Juliet Foxtrot, with the California star Vasilika in third.

The First Lady provided the winner with an automatic berth to the BC Filly and Mare Turf, but Brown and the mare’s owners took a different approach, opting for the BC Mile.

In the BC Mile, Uni and Got Stormy were the two females in a field of 13. Uni took her customary position at the back of the field and roared home with a wide rally through the final half-mile to win by 1 1/2 lengths over Got Stormy.

Brown once described Uni as a “pint-sized keg of dynamite.” Through 2019, she had won 10 of 18 starts and earned $2,347,880.

Uni is not done. After the Breeders’ Cup Mile, Brown said Uni would stay in training with the goal of a start in the Grade 1 Just a Game Stakes at Belmont Park in June as an early objective.