2018 Eclipse Award Champion Female Sprinter
March 2 - Unique Bella
It was 2015 and I was painting at the Keeneland yearling sale and this group of three men approached. They talked about the painting I was working on, racing, and who the horses are that I paint. I told them that probably 95% of the horses I paint are Grade 1 winners. One of the guys quickly jumped in and told me that they had a Grade 1 winner. I asked who it was, and I didn't know the name. You have to understand, if a horse is a Grade 1 winner and I haven't heard of them, you might be trying to sneak chickens past a fox. "Nope, I'm sorry, never heard of her." I asked them to repeat the name, they were Latin and maybe I wasn't hearing the name right. "Nope, I just don't know her." So, I asked what races she had won, maybe I'd be able to figure it out. That's when the leader of the group, who I learned was named Carlos, told me that she hadn’t raced yet!
"Wait, you said she was a Grade 1 winner!" (Carlos is Carlos Heller of Don Alberto Farm - based out of Chile they now own the old Vinery Farm and have added the old Hill n Dale Farm.)
Carlos told me this filly would be a grade one winner as soon as she starts racing. Now, I'm all about confidence, you know like David versus Goliath. That kid with the sling had confidence, but what made these guys so "confident" that this yearling at their farm was "going" to be a Grade 1 winner. They didn't have an answer, but they remained unrelenting. SHE WILL BE A GRADE 1 WINNER! Now, I know the numbers, the percentages, &/or the likelihood of any horse becoming a G1 winner. I'm sure I smiled and told them to find me when she does it. One thing is sure, the horse racing business is filled with dreamers, believers, and confident owners. I went back to painting and pretty much forgot about this horse whose named I finally put to memory. The filly in their barn was named Unique Bella and let's just say, when she hit her stride, she was as good on the track as any horse in the Western Hemisphere. So, here she is - the horse that was "guaranteed" to be a Grade 1 winner before a saddle was ever put on her back.
Unique Bella was a brilliant gray filly who developed into one of the leading distaff runners of her era. She was foaled in 2014, a daughter of the great sire Tapit out of the Unbridled's Song mare Unrivaled Belle, herself a Breeders' Cup winner who took the Ladies' Classic in 2010. She raced for Don Alberto Stable, the Chilean racing and breeding operation, and she was trained by Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer, the same horseman who had developed the great Songbird. Mike Smith rode her in most of her finest moments.
Unique Bella swept her way through her three year old preps in early 2017 with three straight wins, capturing the Las Virgenes Stakes, the Santa Ysabel Stakes, and the Santa Anita Oaks at Santa Anita Park. She looked like a future champion, but a soft tissue injury kept her off the Kentucky Oaks trail and out of competition for several months. Jerry Hollendorfer patiently brought her back, and when she returned she came back as a runner of even greater authority and class.
She made her finest contributions at age four in 2018. Unique Bella rolled through a string of major California stakes, including the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes at Santa Anita, the Grade 1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita, and the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park. She added the Grade 2 Vanity Mile as well, giving her a string of four Grade 1 wins for the year. With Mike Smith doing the riding, she displayed a wonderful combination of natural speed and finishing kick that few rivals could match.
For her dominant 2018 season, Unique Bella was named the Eclipse Award Champion Female Sprinter. She retired soon after to begin a broodmare career for Don Alberto Stable, joining the family of her champion mother Unrivaled Belle. Unique Bella is remembered as one of the most stylish gray fillies of her generation, a horse who came back from injury to become a champion, and as another Hall of Fame quality runner from the Jerry Hollendorfer barn.
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