Heart Stealer turns the table in Sugar Swirl

Filly steals the show in Sugar Swirl (Lauren King/Adam Coglianese Photography)

Peachtree Stable’s Heart Stealer ran down 5-2 second choice R Free Roll at
the wire in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000
Sugar
Swirl Stakes at Gulfstream Park as the even-money favorite and returned
$4.20 to her supporters for the win.

“She tried to run with that filly last time,” trainer Marty Wolfson said. “She doesn’t need
to do that. When she came to me, she was very rank. Now you can take her back.
At the eighth-pole, I didn’t know if she would get there, but once she leveled
out the last 20 yards, I thought she’d get up. But it’s a little too short for
her.”

Heart Stealer missed out by a length in her stakes debut to R Free Roll in
the Bold World Handicap just last month at Calder, but was able to over take her
rival here for her first stakes score. Heart Stealer broke her maiden by a head
in her second career start as a two-year-old in November 2012 at Churchill
Downs. The chestnut trainee did not visit the winner’s circle again until
she was victorious in an optional claiming race two starts back over this track.

The three-year-old filly broke slow out of the gate and rated off the pace as
R Free Roll set quick opening splits of :22 1/5 and :44 4/5. Heart Stealer
slowly made her way to the front as eventual third-place finisher Munnings
Sister pressured the pacesetter.

“I was very concerned,” Wolfson said. “She was back in fifth. It takes her a
little while. Seven eighths is perfect for her, so (the six-furlong distance)
was my concern. But she’d been training well.”

Heart Stealer shifted four wide around the far turn to make her rally and got
up in the final strides to prevail by a neck. She crossed the wire in
1:09 2/5 for the six-furlong test over the fast main track with Javier Castellano aboard.

“It was a beautiful race,” Castellano said. “There was a lot of speed in the
race. We discussed it before the race and we had a plan. We thought there was a
lot of speed in the race, and she doesn’t have to be on the lead. The way the
race unfolds is going to help us. Marty gave the green light and gave me the
confidence to ride the horse off the pace a little bit, and it paid off. I know
it was kind of close, but when I asked her she responded so well in the last
part.”

The daughter of Speightstown improved her record to read 10-3-2-1, $141,180.

R Free Roll took second by a neck over third-place finisher Munnings Sister
and it was another 8 1/4 lengths back to Classic Point in fourth. Crazy About Me
and Twice Told Tale brought up the rear.