Fipke Mulls Pegasus for Distaffer Forever Unbridled

Songbird for all the world looked on her way to a facile win in the Personal Ensign Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course in late August, alone on the lead and clicking off modest fractions that, up to that point in her career, would have made her a cinch.

On this day, however, the white, yellow, and blue silks of owner/breeder Charles Fipke came streaking down the outside of the course like a blur, and the unthinkable came to pass as Forever Unbridled defeated the multiple champion by a neck in just her second start of the season.

Fipke, who has spanned the globe more times than ABC's "Wide World of Sports," took the victory in stride. He's used to playing long odds, having made his living and fortune finding diamond mines around the world. In fact, he's recently returned from a journey to Africa, where he was looking at more diamond mines.

Asked to assess Forever Unbridled's chances in the Nov. 3 Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1), Fipke noted the 5-year-old's unhurried early running style. "I'm hoping we get a good post, and she doesn't get stopped," he said. "(Jockey Joel) Rosario sometimes gets put in a position where he can't get out.

"She's a pretty good mare, and she could win. But you never know. I find that when I'm confident, I lose. And when I'm not expecting it, I win. So you can never tell in a horse race."

For a three-time grade 1 winner, Forever Unbridled tends to fly beneath the radar. She is the answer to the trivia question of who finished third behind Beholder and Songbird in last year's Distaff, just 1 1/4 lengths in back of that superstar pairing that hit the wire a nose apart. Both Beholder and Songbird have been retired, leaving Forever Unbridled the chance to claim a championship.

Yet she is rarely the first or even third name one hears when discussing this year's Distaff. Stellar Wind, who finished 2 1/2 lengths in back of her in last year's edition, seems likely to rate the favorite's role. Paradise Woods has shown occurrences of brilliance this year; Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Abel Tasman has won a trio of grade 1 races this season; Elate defeated elders in the Beldame Stakes (G1) by a pole after having also won the Alabama Stakes (G1) impressively.

Fipke may be understated, but he holds Forever Unbridled (Unbridled's Song—Lemons Forever, by Lemon Drop Kid ) in high enough regard that he was pointing her to the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) early this year against the likes of Arrogate before a bone chip halted those plans. She didn't start until June, taking the Fleur de Lis Handicap (G2) in her only race this season besides the Personal Ensign. Yet Fipke is holding out the possibility of a Pegasus run in January if Forever Unbridled gives the right signs in the Distaff.

"We might take a stab at it again," he said. "She is probably a lot better at 1 1/4 miles than 1 1/8. This game costs so much; the only way you can make some money is these big races."

Fipke, who has bred and raced other grade 1 winners Internallyflawless, Jersey Town , Perfect Shirl, Tale of Ekati , and Unbridled Forever, certainly spent some money when he purchased Kentucky Oaks winner Lemons Forever for $2.5 million at the 2007 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. Like Forever Unbridled, she was trained by Dallas Stewart. Lemons Forever has produced the talented full sisters with their reversible names, and then issued stakes-placed Forever d'Oro to the cover of Medaglia d'Oro .

"I went through all the good horses at that sale and I tried to buy the one I thought was the best-conformed, and when I saw Lemons Forever, she was absolutely gorgeous," said Fipke. "The thing that upset me was they kept showing her winning the Oaks, and I said to myself, 'This is going to be expensive.' And she was.

"She doesn't fit very many stallions. Unbridled's Song and Medaglia d'Oro are two that she does."

Lemons Forever is open this year, and will be bred back to Medaglia d'Oro in 2018.

Returning to the Distaff, Fipke noted, "You always shoot for the top, but you don't always get there. She's raring to go according to Dallas, so we think we'll get a good race out of her."