Already a huge specimen when she joined Team Valor International as a two-year-old, Unbridled Belle grew into a popular racemare, one easy to spot in a large field of runners, owing to her size. She served a long stint as one of the top fillies and mares in North America. The 17-hand daughter of Broken Vow captured stakes wins at three, four, five, and six, peaking with triumphs in the $1-million Delaware Handicap and Grade 1 Beldame Stakes in 2007. She retired just shy of $2-million in career earnings and fetched $900,000 more when Team Valor sold her carrying a foal by Medaglia d’Oro in 2010. Unbridled Belle understandably needed some time to mature once she was purchased privately after scoring an easy debut win at Laurel Park in November 2005 for trainer Gary Capuano, the same Maryland conditioner who oversaw multiple Grade 1 winner and Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes runner-up Captain Bodgit for Team Valor. Todd Pletcher took over Unbridled Belle’s training and found a surface she relished when she went to Delaware Park for an allowance race in May 2006. She kicked away to a five-length win under jockey Ramon Dominguez, and the duo fired right back with a victory in the $100,000 Go For Wand Stakes over the same strip 19 days later. In 2007, Unbridled Belle made a serious mark at Delaware when she ignited for a 7 ¾-length romp in the Delaware Handicap, the largest winning margin since the track’s signature race was extended to 1 ¼ miles in 1951. After a second-place finish in the Personal Ensign Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, Unbridled Belle broke through at racing’s highest level with a head victory in the Grade 1 Beldame at Belmont Park. Ginger Punch finished third, one race before she collected a sloppy-track victory in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Monmouth Park. Unbridled Belle uncorked another dominant effort at Delaware in 2008, dazzling by 5 ¾ lengths in the Grade 3 Obeah Stakes with Dominguez aboard. She may have been even better annihilating the same race as a six-year-old in 2009 by 11 lengths. She later checked in a solid second behind Music Note in the Beldame. The dark mare and Dominguez combined for one more emphatic performance, cruising home by four lengths in the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm Handicap at Aqueduct in October 2009, for her 8th win in a classy career spanning 25 starts. Visit the Video Library for UNBRIDLED BELLE
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