Unzip Me, multiple-stakes-winning turf sprinter, is retired

Unzip Me, a 10-time stakes winner and one of the top female turf sprinters in recent years, has been retired, co-owner John Harris said on Wednesday.

Unzip Me was sent to Harris’s farm in Coalinga, Calif., last month with an injury. She won 14 of 25 starts and earned $959,228.

“She’s got some soft-tissue issues,” Harris said. “When you ultra-sound it, it gives you concern. We evaluated her and it didn’t look like it was the right thing to continue racing her. ”

Harris said that the 6-year-old Unzip Me will not be bred this year because it is too late.

“It was an inopportune time to bring her home,” he said. “It was too late to breed her. We decided to make a fresh start next year. She’s really a nice mare. She didn’t get back home until three or four weeks ago.”

Owned by Don Valpredo, Per Antonsen and trainer Marty Jones, Unzip Me was outstanding in turf sprints, winning four Grade 3 races. She was third against males in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs in 2010.

Unzip Me won her final start, the Wishing Well Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita in January. She was entered for stakes later in the year at Santa Anita, but scratched when rain forced the races from the turf course to the main track.

Harris said no decision has been made on a breeding.