Alicia Wincze Hughes on horse racing

She may not flaunt quite the same form she did during her championship season two years ago. However, if there has been one constant where Forever Together is concerned, it’s that she rarely exits a race without putting herself in the mix, as evidence by the fact she has been off the board just four times in her 23-race career.

Unfortunately, one of those uncharacteristic outings for the gray lady came last weekend when she finished sixth, beaten 13 lengths by Ave in the Grade I Flower Bowl Invitational over a yielding turf at Belmont Park.

Although Forever Together hasn’t won since taking the Grade I Diana Stakes last August, the six-year-old daughter of Belong to Me hadn’t finished off the board since February 2008 when she ran fourth in a seven-furlong allowance race at Gulfstream Park- her last start over dirt before switching to grass in a move that would eventually earn her the Eclipse Award for champion turf female that year.

Disappointed as he was to see his charge run so poorly in the Flower Bowl, trainer Jonathan Sheppard said Forever Together came out of the race in good order and could still be on track to make a start in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, a race she won in 2008 and ran third in a year ago.

“She seems fine so we’re putting (the Flower Bowl) down to the going that day,” Sheppard said on Wednesday. “Unfortunately I made a mistake, it was softer than I thought it would be and she was fine until they started running at the end and she just couldn’t handle it. We’re kind of throwing it out and giving her another shot on a better track.

“If we get firm ground (for the Breeders’ Cup) we might go on. We haven’t rule anything out.”

Owned by George Strawbridge, Forever Together was originally slated to be retired at the end of last season before her connections decided to give her one more year on the track. Both Sheppard and Strawbridge have stated they would stop on their champion if her form severely went downhill but, at the same time, they don’t want to make a knee-jerk decision based on one off day.

“It’s sort of a tough call because you hate to end a horse’s career on such a bad race but at the same time you don’t want it to happen again either,” Sheppard said. “We assume it was the track because she was in such good shape going into the race.”

Like her stablemate Forever Together, Informed Decision has also battled to maintain her top form this season. After winning six of seven starts in 2009 including the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, Informed Decision has captured three of six starts this year and is coming off a win in the Grade III Presque Isle Downs Masters Stakes  on September 11.

Informed Decision is scheduled to run in Saturday’s six-furlong, Grade II Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland, a race she triumphed in last season prior to heading to the Breeders’ Cup. Although a majority of her success has come over synthetic surfaces,  one of Informed Decision’s three career Grade I wins came over the dirt at Churchill Downs – site of this year’s Breeders’ Cup – when she won the Humana Distaff over a sloppy track last May.

“She worked this morning and looked great,” Sheppard said. “Her record has been a little spotty this year but she’s still a very good filly. It’s a hard thing for horses to maintain their very top level over a prolonged period of time. Maybe she hasn’t quite done that, but she’s not far off it either.”