Curlin's Approval cuts back for Sugarloaf Key

Curlin’s Approval is the ultimate horse-for-course at Gulfstream Park. She’s registered all eight of her wins over the main track for local earnings of $584,190. Sunday, the multiple Grade 2 winner will be out to add to her stellar local record when she starts as a strong favorite in the $75,000 Sugarloaf Key Handicap.

The overnight stakes is for fillies and mares and it will be run over six furlongs. The field of six also includes Too Much Tip, a Group 1 winner making her first start since October, and Yes I’ll Go, who comes off a win in an optional $62,500 claiming sprint last month at Gulfstream.

Curlin’s Approval has made 15 of her 19 starts at Gulfstream, and among her local wins are the Grade 2 Princess Rooney, the Grade 2 Royal Delta, and Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie, all last year at 4. Happy Alter, who co-owns and trains Curlin’s Approval, said running the mare out of her own stall contributes to the record at Gulfstream.

“It’s just that Gulfstream is home,” he said. “You never know what traveling, flying, vanning is going to take out of a horse, and she trains at the Gulfstream track.”

Curlin’s Approval won the Ana T. Stakes on June 3 at Gulfstream and has made one start since, finishing a troubled fourth as the favorite in the Princess Rooney on June 30.

“The last race we had the one post, and at seven-eighths here it’s not the best post to have,” Alter said.

Curlin’s Approval will break from post 5 in the Sugarloaf Key, with Tyler Gaffalione aboard. She will be shortening up in distance for a rare appearance at six furlongs. Alter said he prepared the mare for the cutback with a quarter-mile blowout on Aug. 9.

“Any change is always an adjustment – that was the reason for the blowout,” he said. “She won a Grade 2 at seven-eighths and she won another Grade 2 going a mile and a sixteenth, so she’s been very, very honest.”

Curlin’s Approval won her career debut at six furlongs at Gulfstream in 2016.

Alter said the direction to be taken after Sunday with Curlin’s Approval – who last year ran a troubled 13th in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint – will be determined following discussions with George Isaacs, farm manager for co-owner Bridlewood Farm.

“This has been a very special filly,” said Alter, who bred the daughter of Curlin.

◗ Trainer Kathleen O’Connell is nearing 2,000 wins. She was at 1,991 wins in North America through Thursday, according to statistics from Equibase.