Sally's Curlin Sets Sights on Rampart Stakes

CJ Thoroughbreds, Left Turn Racing, and Casner Racing's Sally's Curlin will look to bring home the third grade 3 score of her career Dec. 12 when she takes on a field of five others in the $100,000 Rampart Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park. 

Trained by Dale Romans, Sally's Curlin—a 4-year-old daughter of two-time Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer Curlin —enters the one-mile Rampart off an off-the-board finish in the Nov. 7 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) at Keeneland, where she received less than a perfect trip. 

"That was a bad day for her," Romans said. "You can go back and look, and I don't complain about racetracks, but I thought the track was very unfair that day. It was not only speed- but rail-biased, and I think more rail than anything. We were wide on all our races.

"She was up against it because she comes from off of it. It's easy to draw a line through those kinds of races with a horse that's doing good and go on to the next one, and that's what we're doing. She likes it at Gulfstream, and she's won coming back off a bad performance, so we're optimistic that she can do it again. We feel good about her."

Prior to her Breeders' Cup effort, Sally's Curlin rallied to be third in the Sept. 5 Derby City Distaff Stakes Presented by Derby City Gaming (G1) at Churchill Downs. Her only victory this year came in her debut March 14 at Gulfstream Park when she won the seven-furlong Hurricane Bertie Stakes (G3) by 2 3/4 lengths. 

Her other graded stakes win came in 2019 when she took the Chilukki Stakes (G3) going one mile at Churchill. The Rampart will mark the first time since that victory that she contests the mile distance. Corey Lanerie will have the call from post 3. 

"The distance should hit her right in the head," Romans said.

The highweight at 125 pounds will be St. George Stable homebred Letruska, a 4-year-old daughter of Super Saver  who is trained by Fausto Gutierrez. A multiple stakes winner, Letruska began her career in Mexico, where she won both the Clasico Esmeralda (G1) and Clasico Diamante (G1) in 2019 before being shipped to Florida, where she took the Copa Invitacional del Caribe Stakes at Gulfstream. 

The Rampart will be the seventh start of 2020 for Letruska, who picked up another stakes win in June in the Added Elegance Stakes at Gulfstream at one mile. Her only graded victory came Aug. 30 at Saratoga Race Course, where she scored by a length in the 1 1/8-mile Shuvee Stakes (G3). 

Emisael Jaramillo will partner Letruska from post 5. 

Looking for her first stakes win will be Robert Slack and Daniel Walters' Bajan Girl. A 3-year-old daughter of Speightstown , she enters off back-to-back victories Oct. 8 and Nov. 4 in allowance optional claiming races at Gulfstream Park West. Both wins were at one mile and came following a five-month break after she ran 11th in the Honey Ryder Stakes on the Gulfstream turf.

"She had a setback, which I think was all my fault," trainer Rohan Crichton said. "I probably shouldn't have run her back so quick after the (Gulfstream Park Oaks, G2), and then I put her on the turf, which was a dumb thing to do. She had a very slight muscle strain out of that race on the grass. We just gave her the time, and she's blossoming. I think she's going to run a good race.

"The good thing about her is that she'll do anything the rider asks her to, and that's her biggest asset. She will just relax, or if she needs to show some speed, she will. That gives her a big kick up the lane because she's able to be attentive to the rider's instructions. She's always been a very smart, intelligent filly, and what has happened is that, physically, she's just starting to mature." 

Hall of Fame jockey Edgar Prado rides from post 2.