Leading Keeneland trainer Dallas Stewart had prophesied Forever Unbridled would get better with age. The Unbridled's Song mare recently stormed through five furlongs in 59.60 seconds at the New Orleans Fair Ground. She is the only female in the Dubai World Cup (2018) race. Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith will defend his Gr.1 Dubai World Cup (2017) victory on the champion mare in this year's $10 million race at Meydan.
In an exclusive phone interview with Secretariat’s World, the enigmatic geologist and Canadian diamond mine hunterCharles Fipke talks about his Dubai World Cup plans for his Breeders' Cup Distaff (2017) winning mare.
Q: What kind of a horse is Forever Unbridled?
A: She is from the Lemons Forever dam who won the Kentucky Oaks out of an Argentine Gr.1 winning family. Lemons Foreverhas recently been elected Broodmare of The Year. Forever Unbridled used to get pretty wound up but has calmed down a little. She is all business at the races. She has won eight times on eight different surfaces.
Q: How is she doing currently?
A: She is in very very good shape.
Q: What is your vision for your breeding operation?
A: We now have three Breeders’ Cup winners as broodmares. These are very high quality mares. We would to get a good (Breeders’ Cup winning) stallion too. It is tough to get a good stallion which is more into dirt even though we are based in North America.
(Fipke owns two farms encompassing nearly 400 acres in Paris, Ky. He purchased his first horse at a sale in his native Canada in 1981 and now owns more than 100 broodmares and about 50 racehorses in training. Fipke breeds many of his broodmares to stallions he bred and raced: Tale of Ekati, Perfect Soul and Jersey Town, standing at Darby Dan Farm in Lexington, Ky., and Java’s War and Not Bourbon at Colebrook Farms in Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada.)
Q: What are your plans for Forever Unbridled after the Dubai World Cup? Where does she race next?
A: No, she is going to become a mother. She is booked to Medagliad'Oro.
Q: Have you attended the Dubai World Cup 2017 earlier?
A: I used to run a project in Yemen. I have been to Dubai several times and I have attended a number of Dubai World Cup meetings. I will be departing on Monday after the Dubai World Cup weekend. Forever Unbridled arrives on March 22 and departs on April 7.
Q: How would you compare the adventure of finding diamond mines to racing & breeding Thoroughbreds?
A: It’s tough to get an Eclipse Award winner or a Breeders’ Cup winner just as its tough or tougher to find diamond mines. Just as we have our own methods of finding Gr.1 winners, we have lots of research behind finding diamond mines.
Q: Could you tell us more about your work? Do you still work with diamond mines?
A: I am still a working geologist. I have several prospects (running concurrently) of which two are in Canada and others in Morocco and Brazil. Diamonds grow about 200 kms deep within the earth. It grows in four rock types with minerals. Based on major elements and trace elements, we can identify whether or the minerals grew with diamonds. We then look upstream or rather up-glacier to locate the sources of them.
SW wishes Mr. Fipke all the best for Forever Unbridled’s run in the Dubai World Cup 2018.