Gulfstream Park: Hot pace expected in Sugar Swirl Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There are only six horses in Saturday’s $100,000 Sugar Swirl Stakes, but there certainly is no shortage of speed in the compact lineup, with the early pace potentially the key to the outcome of the Grade 3 dash for fillies and mares.

Breaking from the rail, former mid-level claimer Crazy About Me should be among the early leaders in the six-furlong Sugar Swirl. Crazy About Me was claimed this spring for $15,000 off a winning effort at Churchill Downs by trainer Jorge Navarro. She then posted four consecutive victories for her new connections before having her five-race winning streak snapped with a third-place effort last month in Laurel Park’s seven-furlong Safely Kept Stakes.

“I thought she ran very well, even though she got beat last time,” said Navarro, who is off to a quick start in his first full season at Gulfstream. “She was coming off a very fast track at Monmouth to a much deeper one at Laurel, the pace of the race was run two seconds faster than the boys’ stakes that same day, and seven furlongs is probably not her best distance.”[bc_video_id:312092:]

Six furlongs, on the other hand, is Crazy About Me’s game, as she’s unbeaten in four starts at that distance. And like the majority of the field in the Sugar Swirl, she’s proven to be at her best when on the lead.

“She was kind of on the light side and tough to handle, tough to train, when we first got her, but she’s settled now and does whatever we want,” Navarro said. “Although breaking from the rail, it will kind of force our hand. She’ll have to go early from the inside.”

[Clocker Reports: Get Mike Welsch’s clocker reports from Gulfstream Park and Palm Meadows]

Crazy About Me is liable to face plenty of competition for the front end with speedsters like R Free Roll and Classic Point among her five rivals.

R Free Roll led throughout to capture the Bold World Handicap while matching a career-high 102 Beyer Speed Figure last month at Calder and could wind up as the tepid favorite in the Sugar Swirl.

Classic Point also is rarely headed for the early lead, as was the case when beaten just a neck by Dance to Bristol after showing the way until deep stretch this summer in Saratoga’s Grade 2 Honorable Miss. Classic Point blew out for the Sugar Swirl with a blistering 45.76-second half-mile drill here last weekend.

“I don’t think she needs the lead,” said Allen Jerkens, who trains Classic Point for owner and breeder Joseph V. Shields Jr. “She ran a real good race one day when she lay right in behind everybody and came through on the rail to win.”

Heart Stealer, whom trainer Marty Wolfson also entered against males in Saturday’s Kenny Noe Jr. Handicap at Calder, chased but could not catch R Free Roll when the pair met for the first time in the Bold World. Heart Stealer finished second, a length behind the winner, but earned a career-best 99 Beyer.

“She’s green and inexperienced, and to run 1:10 flat at Calder the first time, that’s not bad,” Wolfson said. “And she’s a little better now than she was then.”

Munnings Sister, third in the Honorable Miss, has won four of seven starts at six panels and could benefit from a lively pace scenario, as would the late-running 3-year-old Twice Told Tale, who finished fourth against older allowance horses in her last start.