Unbridled Forever tries to find her spark again in Indiana Oaks
In January, when she sharply won the Silverbulletday Stakes at Fair Grounds in her first start following an impressive maiden victory at Churchill, Unbridled Forever looked like a Kentucky Oaks contender and one of the top 3-year-old fillies in North America.
Five races later, and Unbridled Forever still has not won since the Silverbulletday, and while she was second in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks just two races ago, her races have lacked the electricity she displayed early in her career. Unbridled Forever gets some class relief and a shorter distance that might better suit her, but she’s difficult to trust as one of the favorites Saturday night at Indiana Grand in the Grade 2, $200,000 Indiana Oaks.
Unbridled Forever, trained by Dallas Stewart and with Joel Rosario named to ride, breaks from post 10 in an 11-horse field Saturday. The outside draw is no bargain, but of greater concern is the way Unbridled Forever faded from contention Aug. 16 in the Alabama Stakes, finishing eighth. She has since gotten a breather from racing while working four times during September at Churchill, but a bounce back to peak form this late in the year seems far from assured.
Miss Besilu has raced in several of the same spots as Unbridled Forever and didn’t finish in front of her until the Alabama, and the Indiana Oaks looks like a spot to latch onto a less-exposed filly. Georgia is one such horse. She has yet to run a Beyer Speed Figure of even 80, but only two of her five starts have come on dirt, and Georgia won both of them. Based in California for her first four races, she is 1 for 1 since moving into the barn of trainer Marty Wolfson.
“She came down to Florida with me and worked like a really good horse,” Wolfson said. “She galloped last time at a one-turn mile, and there’s no problem with distance, it seems.”
Indeed, the 1 1/16 miles of the Oaks should well suit Georgia, who will be ridden by Rosie Napravnik. Tiz Windy, for trainer Carl Nafzger, and Penwith, for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, also look like legitimate players in a race that appears deeper than the Indiana Derby, which the Oaks immediately precedes on the card.
Stakes abound on undercard
Seven more stakes are carded Saturday, though four of them are restricted to Indiana-breds. The open races are the $100,000 Ta Wee for 3-year-old fillies on turf, the $100,000 Mari Hulman George for female dirt-route horses, and the $100,000 Michael G. Schaefer Memorial, an open dirt-route race for 3-year-olds and up.
The Ta Wee field is solid, but Kiss Moon has a good chance to win if she can work out a trip from post 1. She appeared to struggle over soft going at Arlington when finishing unplaced in the Pucker Up Stakes, but her two other grass races were good enough to win the Ta Wee.
The Hulman George has a good field for a listed race, headed by Flashy American, who won the Grade 3 Sixty Sails this past spring, and Ambusher. The Schaefer is packed with early-speed horses, and either one of the inside-drawn pair of Fordubai and Leadem in Ken stands to benefit.