To view the Turnback the Alarm Handicap,
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by Myra Lewyn
With her career winding down and soon to conclude, Team Valor International’s six-year-old Grade 1 winner Unbridled Belle showed that she was still a force to be reckoned with on Saturday when she rolled to a convincing victory in the Turnback the Alarm Handicap (G3) at Aqueduct.
The overwhelming 1-to-2 favorite in the field of eight fillies and mares, the Broken Vow mare broke a touch slowly, then settled in fourth early under Ramon Dominguez as pacesetter Weathered was pressed through slow early fractions by Way With Words and Manitoba Miss.
On Dominguez’s cue, Unbridled Belle gamely split horses on the home turn for clear running room and dispatched runner-up Weathered with a furlong to go en route to a four-length triumph.
“You always want to see them finish up their careers well,” said winning trainer Todd Pletcher, adding that the $150,000 Falls City Handicap (G2) on November 26 at Churchill Downs would be final career start of Unbridled Belle, who won the 2007 Beldame Stakes (G1) at Belmont and $1-million Delaware Handicap (G2).
“She’s been so good to us for a number of years. It’s nice to see her doing as well as she is at the moment. Hopefully, we can get one more.”
Dominguez said Unbridled Belle was on the bridle the entire trip. She covered 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.20 on a track rated as fast. Grade 3 winner Weathered finished 1¾ lengths in front of third-place finisher Way With Words
“She gave me a good run, and in the last eighth I just wrapped up on her,” Dominguez said of the mare, who has been a workmate for Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) hopeful Quality Road.
Unbridled Belle has won two of six starts this season, including the Obeah Stakes (G3) at Delaware Park for the second consecutive year in June. She rebounded from a second-place finish to Music Note in a repeat bid in the Beldame Stakes on October 3 at Belmont. Overall, she has eight wins, four seconds, and four thirds in 24 career starts and $1,893,728 in earnings.
Bred in Kentucky by Joe Sutton and Laszlo Makk, Unbridled Belle is out of stakes winner Little Bold Belle, by Silver Buck.
For an Equibase chart, click here.
Myra Lewyn is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY editor