By Steve Sherack
Live Oak Plantation's blue-blooded homebred Ultimate Love (Curlin) will put her perfect record on the line in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar Oct. 31.
She will look to emulate Sharing (Speightstown), who followed a win in Laurel Park's Selima S. with a 13-1 upset at the 2019 Championships at Santa Anita.
“I think she fits and hopefully she's a logical player to give it a try,” trainer Mike Trombetta said.
Ultimate Love has won her first three career starts–all on grass–by a combined margin of 13 1/2 lengths, capped by a dominating performance while making her stakes debut in the Selima going 1 1/16 miles Sept. 27.
The chestnut was a debut winner at Colonial July 24, then dominated five rivals with a career-best 81 Beyer Speed Figure in a first-level optional claimer at Laurel Sept. 5.
“There's only so many places to run these young fillies,” Trombetta said. “(The Selima) was perfect for us. I was a little nervous because it was back in like three weeks and a day or two, but she handled it well.”
The daughter of leading sire Curlin was produced by Tsunami of Love (Bernardini), a daughter of GI Diana S. heroine My Typhoon (Ire) (Giant's Causeway). Ultimate Love's third dam is the 1993 G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner and bluehen mare Urban Sea (Miswaki), who has produced heavyweights Galileo (Ire), Sea the Stars (Ire), et al.
#3 ULTIMATE LOVE ($5) is now a perfect 3 for 3! She ran down the leader in the stretch to win the $125,000 Selima Stakes at Laurel Park. The 2yo daughter of Curlin was ridden by @jorgeruizjockey and is trained by Michael Trombetta. Live Oak Plantation owns. pic.twitter.com/13Eo8jLRuQ
— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) September 27, 2025
“Originally, I wasn't sure whether she was dirt or turf,” Trombetta said.
“When we started pressing her a little bit on the dirt, I wasn't real impressed by what I was seeing. We moved her over to the synthetic (at Fair Hill) and she worked really well. So, I figured, you know what? I'll run her long on the turf first time and see what we get. She was good enough to win. She's just zipped through some conditions really quickly. Obviously, everything gets tougher from here, but she's done really well.”
Ultimate Love has breezed twice since her win in the Selima, most recently covering five furlongs in 1:01.80 (10/19) over the all-weather at Fair Hill Oct. 18.
“She's training well,” Trombetta said. “Hopefully she fits and she can handle all the travel and everything and give it a good run.”
He added, “The plane leaves out of Newark, New Jersey, on the 26th. So, if her final work on Saturday is good, we'll put her on a plane Sunday.”
Trombetta added that Hall of Famer John Velazquez has been booked to ride.
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