Interstate 95 begins just south of Miami and traces a smooth path northward along the Atlantic coast.

Julia Tuttle, the rangy bay filly by Giant's Causeway, had to make her own trip northward from Gulfstream Park to Colonial Downs before she found a track as smooth as the road she's named for.

The Julia Tuttle Causeway, the stretch of I-195 that spans the Biscayne Bay, is one of four connectors between Miami and Miami Beach. In her first four races for trainer Ferris Allen, the filly managed to get in trouble -- most of it her own creation, Allen said.

Like her famously difficult grandsire, Storm Cat, Julia Tuttle comes with lots of speed and plenty of self-confidence. Sometimes, she has too much of both.

The filly finally won in her fifth start, her first at Colonial Downs with leading rider Horacio Karamanos. Even with the confident Argentine aboard, she bumped her way from fifth to the front through the backstretch. Then she blew away to win by more than 10 lengths.

"He scare me because I tried to pull the horse up," Karamanos said. "He running off. He's coming through the hole, he bumping a little bit, but I had the good luck because I find the room for the horse."

Julia Tuttle stepped up to a small allowance race a few weeks later and quickly found room again: Out in front. She broke in front, was never challenged, and won by more than four lengths.

"This horse got a temperament," Karamanos said. "She's powerful when she want to do something."

Even off the track Julia is not, Allen admits, the most tractable animal in his barn. Throughout the missteps, the filly's potential intrigued her trainer. She has that easy way of covering ground, he said, a rangy body and a long easy stride.

"Oddly enough, I retained very strong confidence in her," Allen said. "But I had to rely a little bit on my reputation so that the owners wouldn't think I was embellishing hers. I thought she was still a nice filly, and I kept relaying that message. And because her races on paper didn't match, I had to hope that I had credibility when I explained that to Mrs. Montanari."

Marion Montanari, Julia's owner and breeder, saw the filly in her first start -- a dubious outing in which the horse finished nearly 11 lengths back. When Allen saddles Julia Tuttle tomorrow for the $200,000 Virginia Oaks (Grade III), it will be the first time Montanari sees her horse run since that uninspiring first race.

It took Allen nearly 20 years to earn Montanari's confidence. She first contacted him when he has success with a filly named Muskrat Love, one Allen and his father bought as a yearling for $5,500. Allen trained a few horses for Montanari on an irregular basis until about three years ago.

"Over a period of time, we just continued to boil with a very slow cook," he said. "We continued to develop more and more of a rapport so that she got comfortable we could handle some of her best horses.

"Most people think you have to be 70 or 80 years old before you know how to train a horse," Allen added, laughing. "You can be president when you're 40-something, but training a racehorse you have to be twice that age."

Allen is 57. Julia is only 3. But their combination of experience and energy might be enough for a long, fast ride.

"Ferris Allen did a good job with this horse, because it's a very nervous horse," Karamanos said. "But she's OK now. This horse is going to grow more. I don't know what is the top with this horse."