Sally's Curlin a decisive winner in Hurricane Bertie Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sally’s Curlin exceeded even her trainer Dale Romans expectations when rallying from another zip code to a decisive 2 3/4- length victory over Wildwood’s Beauty in Saturday’s $150,000 Hurricane Bertie at Gulfstream Park.

Sally’s Curlin won the Grade 3 Chilukki going a mile last fall at Churchill Downs but entered the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie idle since her seventh-place finish in the nine-furlong Fall City Handicap on Nov. 28. It was also the first time in 11 career starts she tried seven furlongs, all four of her previous career wins having come at one mile.

With Hall of Fame jockey Edgar Prado aboard, Sally’s Curlin was pinched back at the start and fell more than 15 lengths off the pace of Blamed in the run down the backstretch. Sally’s Curlin began to advance outside horses on the turn, came extremely wide while continuing her bid into the stretch before finishing full of run down the center of the track to readily overtake the tiring leaders and win going away.

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Wildwood’s Beauty, second behind the red hot Pink Sands in the Grade 2 Inside Information on Jan. 25, rallied willingly outside rivals to be second-best while no match for the winner at the end. Pauseforthecause prompted in the early running, briefly edged clear in early stretch before weakening late, finishing another length behind Wildwood’s Beauty. Lady Kate, the tepid 5-2 favorite stepping up in company off a pair of easy allowance victories, finished a tiring fifth in the field of nine older fillies and mares.

Sally’s Curlin, a 4-year-old daughter of Curlin, completed the distance over a fast track in 1:22.84 and paid $22.60.

“She showed what she was made of the end of last year,” said Romans. “She had a little issue in her last race. I don’t think it was the distance, but I knew 2020 was going to be her year since she just kept getting better and better.”

Romans said he wasn’t sure what to expect after watching Sally’s Curlin drop so far out of contention during the early stages of the race.

“Edgar said she broke a step slow and got squeezed back bad, so he knew to just sit on her,” said Romans. “You could see she was slowly picking them up and they were throwing down big fractions up front. I knew she was going to finish running. It was just a matter of whether she could get there. I knew she was going to run big today. I just didn’t know she was going to run that big. The way she ran today, this might change things as far as our future plans go. The sky’s the limit now.”