Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Crystalle tries to find niche as marathoner
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The 3-year-old season for Crystalle was as quiet as her 2-year-old season was eventful. Now her connections are hoping she’ll start making noise again at 4 when the late-running filly makes her seasonal debut Thursday in the feature race at Gulfstream Park.
“I’ve always thought she had a chance to be a great horse at a mile and a quarter,” said John Kimmel, who trains Crystalle for longtime client Tobey Morton. “Hopefully, she’ll become that kind of horse.”
The 1 3/8-mile distance of the $51,000 feature should suit Crystalle, one of seven fillies and mares set to go that three turn journey over the Gulfstream turf. Eight are actually entered in the ninth of 10 races on Thursday, but one of them, Perspire, most likely will scratch as the lone main track only entrant, given the forecast of continued dry conditions here in South Florida.
Crystalle, with Joe Bravo to ride, will be running back just two weeks after finishing fourth going 1 1/16 miles on the Gulfstream turf on Dec. 31. The Palace Malice filly wore blinkers that day for the first time in her seven-race career, but Kimmel is taking them back off for the Thursday race.
“The blinkers didn’t really seem to make much difference,” he said. “I wouldn’t run her back so quick, except I wouldn’t get to run her in a spot like this for another three weeks – and that’s assuming they wrote the race back and it actually filled. So here we are.”
Crystalle raced four times at 2. She was subject to a controversial disqualification in her August 2019 debut at Saratoga when she was placed third after finishing first at 41-1. She then “redeemed herself in a big way,” said Kimmel, by winning the P.G. Johnson, an effort that was followed by a runner-up finish as the favorite in the Miss Grillo and an 11th-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita.
Bruising in a hind ankle led to Crystalle being sidelined nearly 11 months following the Breeders’ Cup.
“It took us longer to get her back than I thought it would,” said Kimmel, “but thankfully there were no surgical issues or anything like that.”
Her three starts at 3, all going 1 1/16 miles on turf, were a collective disappointment, so Kimmel is hoping her first attempt given substantially more distance will spur a return to prominence. “She’s got the running style that should fit this spot,” he said.
First post Thursday is 12:35 p.m. Eastern, with a $47,000 allowance (race 3) being among the earlier offerings. The feature is part of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 5-10), which had its seven-figure jackpot emptied last weekend by a scheduled mandatory payout.