Gulfstream: Curlin’s Approval Seeks Return to ‘Championship’ Form in G2 Princess Rooney

By David Joseph —-

Multiple Graded-Stakes Winner Set for Breeders’ Cup ‘Win and You’re In’ Event
Princess Rooney, G3 Smile Sprint, Highlight Summit of Speed Program

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Curlin’s Approval came into her own during Gulfstream Park’s 2016-2017 Championship Meet, establishing herself as a multiple graded-stakes winner with dazzling open-lengths triumphs in the Hurricane Bertie (G3) and the Royal Delta (G2).

The 4-year-old daughter of Curlin is scheduled to seek a return to ‘Championship’ form in Saturday’s $250,000 Princess Rooney (G2) Saturday at Gulfstream Park. The Princess Rooney and the co-featured $250,000 Smile Sprint on Saturday’s Summit of Speed card are Breeders’ Cup ‘Win and You’re In’ races.
Saturday’s 14-race program, which will include seven stakes worth $1 million in purses, is slated for an 11:55 a.m. start.

Curlin’s Approval has won five of eight starts, including three stakes, at Gulfstream, where she is slated to meet 10 fillies and mares in the seven-furlong stakes in which the winner will earn a fees-paid berth in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint at Del Mar Nov. 4.

“It’s always good to run at home,” said Happy Alter, who owns his homebred filly in a partnership with Bridlewood Farm.

Curlin’s Approval captured her career debut at Gulfstream last June so impressively that she was entered in the Azalea on last year’s Summit of Speed card for her second start. She weakened to fifth after stalking the pace, but came back to win an optional claiming allowance and the Added Elegance Stakes. She was shipped to Keeneland in October to make her graded-stakes debut in the Raven Run (G2), in which she chased the pace between horses before weakening to fourth.

The Kentucky-bred filly opened her Championship Meet campaign with a close second-place finish in the one-turn mile Rampart (G3) before cutting back to seven furlongs to score a 2 ½-length victory in the Hurricane Bertie. She was sent around two turns for the first time in the 1 1/16-mile Royal Delta, and she responded with a sharp six-length romp.

Favored at 3-5 in the seven-furlong Inside Information (G2) March 18, Curlin’s Approval came up flat, finishing an even fifth.

“She won a Grade 3 and a Grade 2 20 days apart. Sometimes horses will bounce a little. She had just won the Grade 2 stake at a mile and a sixteenth. Coming off fractions of 24-and-change and so on, she was a little flat-footed coming out of the gate going seven-eighths,” Alter said. “For this race, we’ve sharpened her up. Even though she showed she could win two turns, the majority of her stakes have been six-furlongs, seven-eighths.”

Following two months of easy training, Curlin’s Approval prepped for the Princess Rooney in the 1 1/16-mile Matron (G3) at Churchill Downs May 20, when she made a middle move before weakening to seventh as the 4-5 favorite.

“She made a bold move on the outside and then flattened out a little,” said Alter, whose filly breezed three furlongs in 35 seconds Tuesday. “I don’t think you’ll see that Saturday.”

Luis Saez, who was aboard Curlin’s Approval for her back-to-back graded-stakes victories during the Championship Meet, has the mount.

Among her 10 rivals Saturday are three horses that have defeated Curlin’s Approval in stakes action: Distinta, Dearest and Lightstream.

VEB Racing Stable Corp.’s Distinta, a veteran South Florida stakes performer, came up with a career-best effort to notch a half-length victory to earn graded-stakes credentials Inside Information. The 5-year-old daughter of Summer Bird will return to action Saturday off a 3 ½-month break.

“After he last race, we wanted to give her time to relax,” said trainer Victor Barboza Jr., whose stretch-running mare had started five times during the Championship Meet. “She’s doing very good.”
Gelfenstein Farm’s Dearest, who captured last year’s Azalea over a light-on-experience Curlin’s Approval, captured the Sugar Swirl (G3) before finishing third, a half-length behind Distinta in the Inside Information. The Gilberto Zerpa-trained 4-year-old is slated to be ridden by Emisael Jaramillo.
Lightstream, who defeated Curlin’s Approval in the Raven’s Run last fall, has raced once at Gulfstream, where she debuted impressively with a 2 ¼-length triumph at seven furlongs in March 2016. Last time out, the Brian Lynch-trained 4-year-old filly finished third in the Bed O Roses (G3) at Belmont Park under Javier Castellano, who has the return mount Saturday.

Birdatthewire is set to bring Grade 1 credentials into the Princess Rooney, in which she finished third last year. Forum Racing IV’s 2015 Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) winner has gone winless in 10 starts, nine in graded races, since winning the La Brea (G1) at Santa Anita in December 2015. Trainer Tom Proctor, who saddled the 5-year-old daughter of Summer Bird for the first time for a second-place finish in a Presque Isle Downs allowance in her 2017 debut, has awarded the mount to Drayden Van Dyke.
Multiple graded stakes-placed Kinsley Kisses, who is undefeated in two starts at Gulfstream for trained Todd Pletcher, is coming off a second-place finish in the Sugar Maple Stakes at Charles Town April 22.

“She’s run well there before and she ran well last time. It was just a difficult assignment from an outside post and she kind of had to take a wide trip all the way around at Charles Town,” said Pletcher, who named Tyler Gaffalione to ride the daughter of Congrats. “We felt like seven furlongs is a good distance for her and she’s run well at Gulfstream so we thought it made sense.”

Nick Zito-trained Wheatfield, who finished a close second behind Distinta in the Inside Information; Concealedwithakiss, a multiple-stakes winner at Gulfstream; Patriotic Diamond, a multiple stakes-placed filly who finished second in the Ana T. in her Gulfstream debut last time out; and stakes winners More Than a Party and Money or Love; round out the field.

Gulfstream Park is a Stronach Group company, North America’s leading Thoroughbred racetrack owner/operator. The Stronach Group racetracks include Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park & Casino, Golden Gate Fields, Portland Meadows, Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course, home of the world-famous Preakness. The company owns and operates the Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida, and is one of North America’s top race horse breeders through its award-winning Adena Springs operation. The Stronach Group is one of the world’s largest suppliers of pari-mutuel wagering systems, technologies and services. Its companies include AmTote, a global leader in wagering technology; XpressBet, an Internet and telephone account wagering service; and Monarch Content Management, which acts as a simulcast purchase and sales agent of horseracing content for numerous North American racetracks and wagering outlets. The Stronach Group is also a leading producer of social media content for the horseracing industry.