Aqueduct: Nevin tries to cap off big winter with Natalie Victoria

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Michelle Nevin looks to put an exclamation point on a terrific Aqueduct inner-track season when she sends out Natalie Victoria in Monday’s $71,000 allowance feature for fillies and mares going a mile.

Monday is the last scheduled day of racing on Aqueduct’s inner track. Racing moves to the main track on Thursday.

Nevin, a former assistant to Richard Dutrow Jr., enters Monday’s card with 12 wins from 44 starters at the inner track meet, putting her 10th in the trainer standings this winter. She also has 15 second-place finishes.

Natalie Victoria has a win and a second in two starts for Nevin since owner James Riccio Sr. claimed her for $12,500 on Dec. 22. On Jan. 26, Natalie Victoria won an optional claimer by six lengths on the front end. She came back on Feb. 17 and finished second behind Belle Gallanty in a starter allowance.

“The race last time was during the really, really bad weather when we couldn’t train, and we weren’t able to come into the race the way I would have liked,” Nevin said. “She still gave her ‘A’ game and she’s trained forwardly since then.”

Natalie Victoria, a 6-year-old daughter of Indian Ocean, has been quite popular at the claim box. She has been claimed six times since Nov. 30, 2012.

Natalie Victoria does her best work on the front end, and could find some company out there with Miss Da Point, a four-time winner over the inner track.

Nevin said Natalie Victoria has been “very relaxed in the morning.”

“Hopefully, she breaks good,” Nevin said. “If she doesn’t I don’t think it’ll be the end of the world.”

Jose Ortiz will ride Natalie Victoria from post 2.

Antipathy ships up from south Florida for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin coming off a first-level allowance win at Gulfstream on Jan. 31. A half-sister to the Grade 1 winner Scat Daddy, Antipathy has had physical issues over the years, including having ankle chips surgically removed.

McLaughlin said he sent Antipathy to New York hoping to run her in a second-level allowance, but that did not fill. She is running under the third-level allowance condition of this race, which is also open to $75,000 claimers.

“She was impressive to win off the long layoff,” McLaughlin said. “She’s done everything right. We hope she’s a stakes filly.”

Firenze Feeling, trained by Rudy Rodriguez, won the Nellie Morse Stakes on Jan. 4 at Laurel. She came back three weeks later and finished a well-beaten fourth in the Ladies Handicap, won by Teen Pauline.

Miss Mischief, whose three wins have come at six furlongs, will attempt two turns for the first time in this spot.