Decision pending on Forever Unbridled

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Dallas Stewart is undecided on whether to run Forever Unbridled once more before the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, with the 4-year-old filly having recently returned to the Churchill Downs work tab.

“I might run her in the Beldame or Spinster, or I might just train her up to the race,” Stewart said this week at Churchill before heading up Interstate 64 for another session of the Keeneland yearling sale. “It all depends on a few different factors.”

Forever Unbridled, bred and owned by Charles Fipke, was beaten less than a length when third behind Cavorting and Curalina in her most recent start, the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on the Aug. 27 Travers card at Saratoga. A daughter of 2008 Kentucky Oaks winner Lemons Forever, Forever Unbridled is a Grade 1 winner and an earner of more than $1.17 million from 11 career starts. She breezed a half-mile in 48.80 seconds last Sunday in her first work since the Personal Ensign.

Meanwhile, Stewart said that Tom’s Ready, the winner of the Grade 2 Woody Stephens in June, will run next at Churchill in the Grade 3, $100,000 Ack Ack, the Oct. 1 race being targeted as the comeback spot for 2015 sprint champion Runhappy.

“Maybe we can catch him needing a race,” said Stewart.

As for other stakes horses in his barn, Stewart said he intends to send either Seeking Blame or Seeking the Soul to Remington Park for the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby next Sunday, Sept. 25; Golden Soul, the 2013 Kentucky Derby runner-up, is nearing a comeback race after having last started in Dubai in early March; Tale of Verve, the 2015 Preakness runner-up, could run next month at Keeneland; and Forever d’Oro, beaten 31 lengths in the Travers, has been turned out.

◗ Sticksstatelydude, most recently fourth in the Smarty Jones Stakes at Parx on Sept. 5, is another Churchill-based 3-year-old headed to the Oklahoma Derby, according to trainer Greg Burchell. Joel Rosario will retain the mount.

“He didn’t have the greatest trip in the Smarty Jones,” said Burchell. “He got nicked up a little and really didn’t get much chance to run his race.”

◗ Chris Hartman said he hopes to “pick right up where we left off at the spring meet” as racing resumed this weekend at the September meet at Churchill. Hartman won with nine of his last 15 starters at the spring meet, which ended July 2, then went to Del Mar with most of his best horses to set up what he hopes will become a year-round string on the Southern California circuit. He has about 20 horses at Santa Anita in the care of assistant Josh Flores.

Hartman said he still has 32 horses on the Churchill backside, “sitting on ready.”

“We’re going to step on the gas and go full bore this meet,” he said. “It’s time to run.”

◗ Trainer Buff Bradley said Grade 1 winner Divisidero and Indiana Derby runner-up The Player are due back in his Churchill barn by the end of this month.

Bradley said The Player has been swimming at the LaCroix training center outside of Louisville and that Divisidero, the winner of the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic in May, has been in the care of his owner, Gunpowder Farms.

◗ Trainer Dale Romans said his top two 3-year-olds, Cherry Wine and Brody’s Cause, are due to return to his Churchill barn this week after brief freshenings. Cherry Wine is best known for running second in the Preakness behind Exaggerator, while Brody’s Cause is a two-time Grade 1 winner.

◗ Trainer Bret Calhoun said that Fish Trappe Road was scheduled to breeze this weekend at Churchill in what was to be the New York-bred colt’s first work since a sixth-place finish in the King’s Bishop on Travers Day. Fish Trappe Road won the Grade 3 Dwyer at Belmont in July.

◗ With Evangeline Downs having ended and Louisiana Downs winding down, jockey Colby Hernandez has returned to Kentucky to spend time again with his older brother and fellow jockey, Brian Hernandez Jr., while also riding races. Colby was named in three races on the meet opener Friday.

Last year, Colby intended to ride this meet but was injured in a spill and got to ride only 10 races. He was sidelined for about a month before resurfacing on the Louisiana circuit.

◗ Declan Cannon earned the first stakes victory of his riding career in the United States, booting home Gifted Justice in the Hillsdale Stakes on Wednesday at Indiana Grand. Cannon, a 29-year-old native of Ireland, plans to continue riding the Kentucky circuit before wintering at Tampa Bay Downs. His agent is Cory Prewitt.

◗ Paola Queen, Go Maggie Go, Marquee Miss, and Dream Dance are among the 26 3-year-old fillies nominated to the $100,000 Dogwood Stakes, which highlights the second weekend of racing at this meet. The seven-furlong Dogwood anchors the only evening card of the meet, next Saturday, Sept. 24, along with the Grade 1 President of the United Arab Emirates Cup for Arabians. First post is 6 p.m. Eastern.