Fair Grounds notes: Unbridled Forever has both speed and stamina

When Lemons Forever won the 2006 Kentucky Oaks for trainer Dallas Stewart, she was a 47-1 shot making only her second start in a stakes races. A paceless, one-run closer, Lemons Forever needed the right circumstances to score a big win. In fact, after her Oaks upset, she lost eight straight starts over the course of a year before finally breaking through in a third-level allowance, the only other race Lemons Forever would win before she was retired to be a broodmare.

Lemons Forever’s daughter Unbridled Forever – her third foal to race, and the product of her mating with deceased sire Unbridled’s Song – is cut from a different cloth. Lemons Forever apparently imparted some quality and stamina, but the daughter has skills the mother never possessed. Unbridled Forever has speed – she pressed a 45-second-and-change half-mile split in her seven-furlong maiden win at Churchill – and the mental capacity to dole it out as her rider desires. Making her two-turn debut Saturday in the Silverbulletday Stakes, Unbridled Forever rated beautifully for Robby Albarado, made multiple moves, and somewhat comfortably pushed past the talented filly Divine Beauty in the stretch run.

“She’s the most complete horse I’ve ever been around,” Stewart said Tuesday.

With that in mind, and believing Unbridled Forever can make hay in Grade 1 races throughout the year, Stewart reiterated that he and owner Charles Fipke plan to pass the Rachel Alexandra Stakes next month and point to the Fair Grounds Oaks on March 29.

“She’s already ran a mile, won at two turns, if you go in the Rachel Alexandra, then in the Fair Grounds Oaks and the Kentucky Oaks, it’s an awful lot of racing in a short period of time. We want to keep her healthy, space her races. There are a lot of Grade 1’s all across the board for her. I think she’s capable of having that kind of year.”

Daddy Nose Best sharp on turf

Daddy Nose Best took last winter off, with no races between September 2012 and April 2013. This winter, he has established himself as the leading active older turf horse at Fair Grounds, and his connections have set their sights on the Feb. 22 Fair Grounds Handicap after Daddy Nose Best captured his second grass stakes of the meet Saturday with a narrow win in the Colonel E.R. Bradley Handicap.

Daddy Nose Best won by only a neck over Adios Nardo – whom he had handled by 3 1/2 lengths on Dec. 21 in the Diliberto Memorial – but the Bradley pace to the half-mile and three-quarters was more than four seconds slower than the splits into which Daddy Nose Best had rallied in the Diliberto, and Daddy Nose Best also had to overcome a traffic-filled journey to get up Saturday.

“It was unbelievable for him to win when they went that slow and he was blocked,” said trainer Steve Asmussen.

The Asmussen-trained dirt-route horse Prayer for Relief was not too fortunate, finishing third as the 3-5 favorite Saturday in the Louisiana Handicap after a 6 1/4-length win in the Dec. 21 Tenacious at Fair Grounds. Asmussen said the Louisiana “didn’t set up quite as good” for Prayer for Relief as the Tenacious, but that the horses had exited the race in good shape and would be aimed at the Feb. 22 Mineshaft Handicap.

Fordubai pointing to Mineshaft

The Mineshaft also is the goal for Louisiana Handicap winner Fordubai, who scored his first stakes win with a one-length victory over Grand Contender, earning a career-best 103 Beyer Speed Figure.

“He seemed to come out of the race well,” said Greg Geier, who trains Fordubai for owner-breeder Jim Tafel. “The Mineshaft probably is the plan for him.”

Fordubai was coming off a sixth-place finish in the Hawthorne Gold Cup, and Geier said the colt probably failed to handle that race’s 1 1/4-mile distance.

Geier said plans are uncertain for Street Spice, who finished third in the Hawthorne Gold Cup but could only finish an even fifth in the Louisiana.

◗ A non-winners-of-four allowance race for Louisiana-bred sprinters, the last of 10 races, is featured on the Thursday card.