Somewhat lost in the well-deserved adulation for racing's divas Zenyatta and Goldikova at the Breeders' Cup was the farewell for another special mare who took her final bow Friday evening at Churchill Downs.

Although it wasn't a surprise, the retirement of Forever Together, champion turf mare of 2008 and a two-time winner of the Diana at Saratoga, was officially announced this week. The 6-year-old gray ends her remarkable career with a record of 26-9-5-7 and earnings of $2,957,639. Although she's best known as a turf champion, the consistent mare was also a Grade II winner on dirt and Grade II-placed, beaten just a neck, on synthetic. She competed over 12 different tracks in six states and Canada.

Put on the turf for the first time in spring 2008, Forever Together would go on to collect six stakes wins on the turf - four at the Grade I level - and an additional 10 graded placings (six Grade I). She won her first edition of the Diana in 2008, the year she went on to win the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf and be named Eclipse Award champion turf mare. The gray returned to win the Diana in 2009, joining a select list of just seven mares who are repeat winners of the race.

That would be Forever Together's final victory, but she continued on to run strongly at racing's top levels against some of the best in her division. The mare finished third in the 2009 Filly and Mare Turf behind champion Midday. This year, she competed at Saratoga twice. Her bid for three wins in the Diana fell short by just a head and a nose, as she was third behind four-time Grade I winner Proviso and the longshot Shared Account. She then finished third in the Glens Falls behind a runaway win by Keertana. In her final start, making her third appearance in the Filly and Mare Turf, Forever Together finished in a dead heat for sixth, beaten less than two lengths as Shared Account outdueled Midday for the win with Keertana third.

Forever Together has already left Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard's barn and is boarded at Stone Farm near Paris, Ky. She will be bred next spring to top sire Smart Strike - the father of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, likely champion 3-year-old Lookin At Lucky, turf champion English Channel and top sprinter Fabulous Strike. Here's wishing this champion a long and healthy retirement as we eagerly await her foals.

Forever Together - a champion with a sweetheart personality - heads to the paddock before her final career start, in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf.