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Unbridled (March 5, 1987 – October 18, 2001) was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1990 Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic.
He retired with a career record of eight wins, six places, and six shows in 24 starts, and $4,489,475 in career earnings. Unbridled had a rivalry with Summer Squall over their three and four-year-old seasons. Summer Squall defeated Unbridled in four of their six meetings.
He was sired by Fappiano (10 wins in 17 starts), by Mr. Prospector, and his dam was Gana Facil, by Le Fabuleux. Gana Facil was descended from Magic, a half-sister to both the champion sprinter Ta Wee and Dr Fager.
When Unbridled won the Derby, a network television camera in the Churchill Downs stands captured his trainer, Carl Nafzger, giving the horse's elderly owner, Frances Genter, a stretch call because of her poor vision. Nafzger shouted, "He's going to win! He's going to win! Oh, Mrs. Genter, I love you!"
Racing as a four-year-old, Unbridled won the Deputy Minister Handicap at Gulfstream Park and placed second behind Summer Squall in the Fayette Stakes at Keeneland Race Course. Unbridled lost four of six meetings with rival Summer Squall.
Unbridled is also the last stallion to have sired at least one winner in each of the American Triple Crown races (first for each listed): Grindstone, Kentucky Derby, 1996; Red Bullet, Preakness Stakes, 2000; and Empire Maker, Belmont Stakes, 2003.
Some of Unbridled's other offspring include:
Unbridled was grandsire through Unbridled's Song of the filly Eight Belles, who finished second at the 2008 Kentucky Derby but broke both front at the finish and was euthanized on the track, and of the colt Arrogate, who won the 2016 Breeders' Cup Classic and placed first in the World's Best Racehorse Rankings for that year. By his daughter Oatsee, he was also the broodmare sire of Shackleford, winner of the 2011 Preakness Stakes.
One of Grindstone's foals, Birdstone, upset Smarty Jones to win the 2004 Belmont Stakes. Birdstone, in turn, sired Mine That Bird, a gelding that won the 2009 Kentucky Derby, and Summer Bird, a colt that won the 2009 Belmont Stakes. Empire Maker, which won the 2003 Belmont Stakes, sired Pioneerof the Nile, who placed behind his cousin Mine That Bird in the 2009 Kentucky Derby, and eventually sired American Pharoah, the first-ever winner of the Grand Slam of Thoroughbred racing in 2015. American Pharoah gave Unbridled the honour of four generations of Triple Crown race winners.
Unbridled was laid to rest at Claiborne Farm.
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