Stewart thrilled about Forever Unbridled, Tom's Ready performances

Trainer Dallas Stewart's two runners in Saturday's stakes card exited their efforts in top shape, according to the conditioner. Topped by Charles Fipke's Forever Unbridled, who became only the second horse ever to beat Songbird when taking the Grade 1 Personal Ensign, Stewart also took satisfaction in G M B Racing's multiple graded stakes winner Tom's Ready, dismissed at 44-1, finishing third in the Grade 1 Forego three races later.

"He really ran great," Stewart said. "He ran hard and laid it down. He was beaten by a champion in Drefong, but he ran his race."

A return to the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, in which the son of More Than Ready was fifth last year, is less likely, but not out of the cards for the Pennsylvania-bred. Slated to go to stud at Spendthrift Farm at the completion of his career, he is in search of an elusive Grade 1 victory and Stewart plans to return to New York to attempt such.

"We'll probably go back to Churchill first with him and look at the [Grade 3] Ack Ack," he said. "After that, I think we'll circle the [Grade 1] Cigar Mile and finish it up. [Getting a Grade 1] is what we're trying to do. I don't know about the Breeders' Cup."

The highlight of Saturday for the Stewart barn was easily Forever Unbridled's massive performance in which she won for the seventh time in her 16-race career and boosted her career bankroll to $2,086,880, becoming the richest horse Stewart has trained in his career. Second in that ranking is talented Grade 1-winning handicapper Macho Again, who won more than $1.8 million in his career and nearly defeated Rachel Alexandra in the 2009 Woodward. 

Of the seven Grade 1 races Stewart has won in his career, five of those came from Forever Unbridled or her family. Dam Lemons Forever landed the Kentucky Oaks, Unbridled Forever - full-sister to Forever Unbridled - took Saratoga's 2015 Ballerina and Forever Unbridled has scored three in the past 16 months. 

"Just phenomenal," Stewart said, beaming. "She just really put on a performance yesterday that was out of this world. She beat a champion and you have to have an unbelievable performance to do what she did. She looks good today, too. She looks bright and she's rearing up and bucking this morning; all of the above. 

"She's a big, beautiful, strong filly," he continued. "She had some raw talent coming into training early and then as a 3-year-old hooked some great fillies like [I'm a] Chatterbox and Lovely Maria. We never ducked anybody. That's Chuck Fipke's style. He doesn't duck anyone."

The tentative plan with Forever Unbridled is to ship back to Churchill Downs to prepare for a defense of Belmont's Grade 1 Beldame, which she annexed en route to a third in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff in 2016. Saturday's Saratoga win was her seventh victory on a seventh different track, following Fair Grounds (maiden win), Aqueduct (Grade 3 Comely), Sam Houston (Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic), Oaklawn (Grade 1 Apple Blossom), Belmont (Grade 1 Beldame) and Churchill Downs (Grade 2 Fleur de Lis).