Unbridled Forever Swoops Past Leaders in Ballerina

In a race that set up for her closing kick, Charles E. Fipke's homebred Unbridled Forever swooped past the early leaders to win the Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga Race Course by a length and secure a spot in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint.

 

Kiss to Remember also closed well for second, 1 ¼ lengths ahead of Room for Me in third. 

 

Longshot Sarah Sis set the early fractions of 23.10 and 46.04 seconds in the seven-furlong sprint for females, a "Win and You're In" race for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint at Keeneland.  Into the stretch, Unbridled Forever shifted to the outside and came charging down the center of the track, hitting the wire in 1:22.54.  

 

"We got a perfect trip," Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez said. "We broke the way we thought and we were behind the pack, worked our way through on the inside until we got to the quarter-pole, and then I pulled her out and she responded."

 

Unbridled Forever returned $8.20 for a $2 win bet and extended her record to 4-2-3 from 12 starts.

 

It was trainer Dallas Stewart's first Grade I win at Saratoga and first overall since Macho Again won the 2009 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs. The 55-year-old also trained the winner's dam, 2006 Kentucky Oaks winner Lemons Forever.

 

Stewart confirmed that Unbridled Forever would point to the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint but was unsure of whether or where she might race before then.