Gulfstream Park: Sisterly Love making up for lost time

Bob Coglianese

Sisterly Love, 5, didn't make her first start until October. She is 3 for 3 and headed for a stakes.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There’s an old racetrack joke that says the reason some horses never start until the fall of their 4-year-old season is because they were so fast nobody could catch them. In the case of Sisterly Love, that just might be true.

Sisterly Love, a Kinsman Stable homebred by Bellamy Road, did not launch her career until just two months shy of her fifth birthday. But since winning her maiden by 11 1/2 lengths when finally getting to the races for the first time on Oct. 27 at Calder, Sisterly Love has shipped across town to Gulfstream Park to capture a pair of one mile-allowance races, including Sunday’s co-featured eighth event by 2 1/2 lengths, for which she received a career-best 93 Beyer Speed Figure.

Sisterly Love is the first horse Calder trainer Bill White has had for Kinsman.

“Sisterly Love began my association with Kinsman and I was really excited when I received the phone call this summer and learned they were interested in sending me some horses,” said White. “The farm said they always had a lot of regard for this filly, but various issues kept delaying her from getting to the racetrack. When she came to me about three months ago, we were under a little pressure just to get her to break her maiden before the end of the year because 5-year-old maidens aren’t even allowed to be stabled on the grounds at Calder.”

White said he was particularly impressed by Sisterly Love’s performance on Sunday.

“A lot of times these types of quality horses break their maidens and can win a first level allowance race on talent alone,” said White. “But once you get to the level Sisterly Love was at Sunday, they start getting a little class check and she really showed some class. Especially the way she won. She’s a big, growthy filly who really doesn’t want to be on the lead. But drawing the one hole kind of forced our hand. She had to run away from the gate to hold her position, yet she was still able to pull it off, and that’s what impressed me most about this race.”

White said Sisterly Love would likely try stakes company in February in her next start while also stretching out around two turns for the first time.