Willow Case has repeatedly foiled bettors and heavy favorites alike in her brief career at Gulfstream Park, but the 2-year-old is sure to earn more respect in the $75,000 Hallandale Beach Stakes on Friday. She will be one of four juvenile fillies stretching out to a mile in the field of six. “Willow Case is a pretty healthy mare,” trainer Ramon Minguet said. “We’ve had to wait for the right races. We’re in no hurry to race, and she’s been developing perfectly.” In three career starts, Willow Case has established herself as a pesky contender in the juvenile fillies division at Gulfstream, proving to be an especially sharp thorn in the side of trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. In a $58,000 maiden special weight in May, she scored a 14-1 upset by a neck over Drama, Joseph’s 1-5 favorite, who finished 14 1/2 lengths clear for second. Minguet did not run his filly again for three months, patiently preparing her at Equels Training Center before bringing her back as a 27-1 longshot in the $75,000 Sharp Susan. With an early move on the backstretch, she took down Joseph-trained filly Tessellate, the 9-5 favorite, by 3 1/4 lengths on a sloppy track. :: Play Gulfstream Park with confidence! DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports available now. Tessellate and the third-place finisher in the Sharp Susan, Dakota’s Lil Auror, will be rematched with Willow Case in the Hallandale Beach. All three will try a route for the first time, and Minguet said his filly should have even more to offer than she did at six furlongs last time out. “She can run at speed, she relaxes very well,” Minguet said. “She is a mare with a good mind, very professional, and she will do very well in the mile. The longer the distance, she will perform better.” Minguet was surprised when his filly went off at 27-1 in her stakes debut, but there will be a more reasonable price on the tote board this time around. Willow Case is listed as the 5-2 third choice on the morning line and should vie for favoritism. Tessellate, the potential pacesetter who has fired back-to-back four-furlong workouts in under 47 seconds at Palm Meadows, is the 2-1 second choice behind last-out maiden winner Vita Mia, the Armando De La Cerda filly who will open at 9-5 after a $56,000 maiden special weight victory at a mile on Sept. 6. She earned a field-topping 71 Beyer Speed Figure for the four-length win. Dakota’s Lil Auror, who finished a nose behind Tessellate in the Sharp Susan last month, is one of two fillies entered by trainer Herbert Miller. Her stablemate Triple Threat switched to dirt in her fifth career start last time out and won a $17,500 maiden claiming race by 2 3/4 lengths. That Police, a maiden trained by Dante Zanelli, rounds out the field of six. Though she has never won and has only raced on synthetic, she improved to finish second by a half-length in a $42,000 maiden special weight in August. Besides Vita Mia, she is the only other runner in the field with route experience. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.