Forever Unbridled targets Fort Springs

While Unbridled Forever will miss the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with a minor injury, owner and breeder Charles Fipke and trainer Dallas Stewart are looking to run her younger full sister in a supporting event on BC weekend.

Stewart said Forever Unbridled, a 3-year-old filly with the identical pedigree as Unbridled Forever (by Unbridled’s Song out of 2006 Kentucky Oaks winner Lemons Forever), will run in the $100,000 Fort Springs, a six-furlong race on the Oct. 31 undercard. Forever Unbridled will be making her first start since finishing 11th in the Kentucky Oaks on May 1.

Stewart said he is “pretty disappointed about the timing” involving Unbridled Forever having to miss the Filly and Mare Sprint. Unbridled Forever, 4, won the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga in her last start.

“She’ll be ready to come back from WinStar Farm around Dec. 1,” he said. “I haven’t heard from Mr. Fipke whether he’ll want to retire her or send her back to me in New Orleans or maybe even give her a little more time before we get started back with her.”

Sullivan trains two big winners

A 4-year-old filly named Chella will be looking for a seventh straight victory when favored in the first race Sunday, but win or lose, she’ll still be short of what her stablemate has accomplished this year.

Elliot Sullivan, a 26-year-old native of Youngstown, Ohio, is the owner and trainer of Chella, who is unbeaten in six starts since Sullivan claimed her for $5,000 on April 1.

“I’ve got another mare in the barn who’s won 10 races this year,” Sullivan said Friday from his base at ThistleDown, where he has a 20-horse stable. “That’s the most in the country.”

Indeed, it is. Sullivan claimed Tribal Custom in July for $7,500 and has won three in a row with her. The 5-year-old Tribal Custom already had won seven races in 2015 for prior connections.

Sullivan said he has been in racing “pretty much my whole life. My mom and dad have always been involved, and so have my aunt and uncle and cousins. This is an exciting time for us right now.”

◗ If the fifth race here Thursday had been 1 1/16 miles and a jump, the winner might well have been a late-flying filly named Lottie. But as it turned out, Lottie had to settle for a dead heat for third – that’s how close the finish was. Princess Princess, a 21-1 shot, outlasted Barbados Kitten by a head in the maiden turf race, while Lottie and Calamity Jane were both just a nose behind Barbados Kitten in the mad scramble.