Forever Unbridled sidelined by ankle chip

Forever Unbridled, the multiple Grade 1-winning filly who finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff last month, was to undergo routine minor surgery Tuesday to remove a bone chip from her left-front ankle, trainer Dallas Stewart said.

Forever Unbridled had been stabled with Stewart at Fair Grounds following the Breeders’ Cup but has left for Kentucky, where the surgery will be performed at the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington. Forever Unbridled turns 5 on Jan. 1, but Stewart said owner Charles Fipke still intends to race her in 2017.

“She’ll have 45 to 60 days off,” Stewart said. “She’ll do her rehab at [Fipke’s] farm in Kentucky.”

Forever Unbridled won the Grade 1 Apple Blossom and the Grade 1 Beldame during a breakout season in 2016. Fipke bred the filly, who is by Unbridled’s Song and out of Lemons Forever, whom Stewart trained to win the Kentucky Oaks.