Seeking the Soul bound for Dubai World Cup

Owner-breeder Chuck Fipke and trainer Dallas Stewart are headed back to Dubai.

A year after the mare Forever Unbridled finished fifth making her career finale in the $12 million Dubai World Cup, Stewart and Fipke plan to run Seeking the Soul in the 2019 World Cup on March 30.

“We got our invitation today,” Stewart said Wednesday. “The horse is happy and healthy. We’re excited to be going.”

Seeking the Soul is back at Fair Grounds after shipping to Gulfstream Park and finishing second of 12 in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup. The performance, which produced a 103 Beyer Speed Figure, marked an improvement upon Seeking the Soul’s showing in the 2018 Pegasus, where he was a distant fifth to Gun Runner. This time, Seeking the Soul defeated Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Accelerate by 1 1/2 lengths while beaten only by victorious City of Light, whose 5 3/4-length win margin would’ve been narrower had John Velazquez on Seeking the Soul gotten a cleaner run.

Velazquez let his mount make a sharp inside move down the backstretch, but while still full of run Seeking the Soul had to wait for traffic to clear starting at the half-mile pole, checking briefly on the far turn as Patternrecognition backed suddenly through the field.

“Hopefully, it’ll set up for a World Cup. I thought he was great going into the Pegasus and now we got a good, hard race into him that he took very well. We’ll just moderate his works now, keep him sharp, maybe one or two stiff ones before we ship,” said Stewart, who confirmed Velazquez as Seeking the Soul’s jockey in Dubai.

Forever Unbridled never had much of a chance in the 2018 World Cup while trying to rally from well off the pace on a speed-favoring racing surface. Stewart and Fipke will hope for better luck this time.