Rebridled Dreams allowed Farrell to spread her wings

A mother’s influence on development in the early months can often go overlooked in the success of a racehorse, but it’s hard to look at the produce record of Rebridled Dreams and not have it in mind.

If Farrell’s Kentucky Oaks bid is successful, she would become the third Grade 1 winner out of the Unbridled’s Song mare, who is the cornerstone of Bob Cummings and Annette Bacola’s Coffee Pot Stable breeding program.

The mare has already put a murderers’ row on the racetrack that includes Carpe Diem, a two-time Grade 1 winner who sold for $1.6 million as a juvenile and is now a young stallion; Grade 1 winner J. B.’s Thunder; multiple English Group 3-placed stakes winner Doncaster Rover; and Grade 2-placed Semper Fortis. Farrell enters the Oaks with a trio of Grade 2 wins, most recently in the Fair Grounds Oaks.

All six of Rebridled Dreams’s black-type runners are by different sires, leaving the mare as the common bond. That fact was not lost on Bacola.

“She takes her job as a mother seriously, and she’s raised some wonderful horses,” Bacola said. “We feel like there’s a lot to mothering in terms of a racehorse. The mothering of a horse is where it all starts. It either gets them off to a great start or it doesn’t, and she’s gotten every single one of her foals off to a fabulous start toward their racing careers.”

Bacola and Cummings, her husband, both Chicago-area residents, keep six broodmares at Woodline Farm in Paris, Ky., with an additional mare boarded in New York. They purchased Rebridled Dreams privately in early 2004.

Already a Grade 3-placed stakes winner, Rebridled Dreams raced one season under the Coffee Pot banner before being retired and starting off her broodmare career quickly with the War Chant colt Doncaster Rover, who now stands at stud in England. Motherhood came naturally to the mare.

“She’s very protective,” Bacola said. “Some mothers are a little overprotective, some mothers are kind of hands-off. She’s just hands-off enough.

“Farrell was very independent and an extremely confident foal, but her mother just let her settle in,” Bacola added. “She let her explore without being overprotective and just always kept an eye on her. Rebridled Dreams is just a good mother, and aside from the fabulous racing that she’s passing on, she does a wonderful job with those first few months with all of her foals.”

Farrell, by Malibu Moon, is the first foal out of Rebridled Dreams to be kept and campaigned by Coffee Pot Stable instead of offered at auction. While Bacola and Cummings had discussed keeping a filly out of the mare prior to Farrell’s arrival, they agreed that it had to be the right one.

The two visited Farrell at Woodline Farm about a week after she was born, and her looks, confidence, and intangible qualities made her a strong candidate to retain. As Farrell matured and the farm staff continued to send back rave reviews, it became clear that the filly would be her dam’s eventual successor in the Coffee Pot broodmare band. That the filly could end up being the best runner out of her dam was a bonus.

“She pretty much told us herself,” Bacola said. “She presented herself from a very young age as being a special little filly, and it was pretty evident that she was the one we were going to keep.”