Forever Unbridled is likely to be feted this week with an Eclipse Award as champion older female of 2017, but even as that takes place the course of her career is uncertain.
Forever Unbridled worked Dec. 11 at Fair Grounds while she was still under consideration for the Pegasus World Cup Invitational, but once the plug was pulled on those plans, trainer Dallas Stewart took the mare off a work pattern, though she is still galloping and “looks great,” Stewart said.
When trainer Bret Calhoun saw the half-mile fraction in the second race last Friday at Fair Grounds pop up, 46.35 seconds, he figured his pacesetting trainee Classy Act would run out of gas. Instead, Classy Act probably ran her way into the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Feb. 17 at Fair Grounds.
Classy Act, a 3-year-old filly, was part of a first-level allowance race being contested at one mile and 70 yards, and at Fair Grounds, a half-mile split under 47 seconds typically spells certain doom.
“When I saw how fast she was going, I figured she was cooked,” Calhoun said.
Steve Asmussen-trained 3-year-olds Principe Guilherme, Snapper Sinclair, and Zing Zang finished second, third, and fourth in the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 13 at Fair Grounds, and two days later, the Asmussen-trained pair of Combatant and Tap Daddy finished second and third in the Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn.
Jockey Jevian Toledo was released from the University of Maryland Medical Center’s shock/trauma unit Sunday night after being injured in a Laurel Park training accident that morning.
Toledo was working a Jamie Ness-trained horse who fell. The horse got to his feet after the incident and ran back to the barn.
X-rays taken at the Howard County Hospital in Columbia, Md., revealed compression fractures of the T7 and T8 vertebrae in Toledo’s mid-back region. He also was found to have a punctured lung.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Whether purchasing a horse privately or obtaining one through the claim box, owner Michael Dubb continues to prove adept at picking stakes winners.
On Sunday, Control Group, a horse Dubb claimed for $62,500 almost exactly one year ago, won his second consecutive stakes, cruising to a four-length victory under Kendrick Carmouche in the $100,000 Alex M. Robb at Aqueduct. That victory came one day after the 3-year-old World of Trouble, a private purchase Dubb made last fall, won the $75,000 Pasco Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Unique Bella, who won the La Brea Stakes on Dec. 26, remained on target for the Santa Maria Stakes on Feb. 10 with a dazzling five-furlong work in 59 seconds on Sunday morning, the best time of 109 works at the distance and one of only four works that were less than one minute.
“Did you see her? She was 15 lanes off the rail,” marveled Dan Ward, the local assistant to Jerry Hollendorfer, Unique Bella’s trainer.
ARCADIA, Calif. – McKinzie, the unbeaten winner of the CashCall Futurity at Los Alamitos, worked an easy half-mile in 49 seconds Sunday morning under Drayden Van Dyke as Baffert contemplates his options for the highly regarded Kentucky Derby prospect.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Collected came the closest to Gun Runner when second in the Breeders’ Cup Classic two months ago, then threw in a stinker in the San Antonio Stakes on Dec. 26 here at Santa Anita. He is typically a good work horse, and he looked like his old self on Sunday morning in his final drill for the Pegasus World Cup on Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
The combination of that work and the intention to put him into the race – rather than let him lag, as happened in the San Antonio – certainly makes him capable of running back to his best form in the Pegasus.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – While Gun Runner was sent through an easy gallop during his second morning at Gulfstream Park, a handful of his opponents for the $16 million Pegasus World Cup had their final prerace breezes at various Florida venues on a busy Saturday morning.
Sharp Azteca, War Story, and Gunnevera worked just across town at Gulfstream Park West, while Stellar Wind worked at the Palm Meadows training center and Fear the Cowboy worked at the Oak Ridge Training Center near Ocala, Fla.
According to multiple horsemen, there was a positive test for the equine herpesvirus at Laurel Park on Friday.
Track officials did not immediately respond to voice or text messages Friday night, but the reported positive could affect this weekend's races.
The Saturday card has already lost five horses stabled at Belmont Park due to an ongoing quarantine for the equine herpesvirus at that track.
