Ice Princess delivers in Maddie May Stakes

Ice Princess lived up to her 2-5 favoritism with a 2 1/2-length victory in Sunday’s $100,000 Maddie May Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct, setting her up for a return to graded stakes competition in her next start.

Sitting an up-close fourth under Manny Franco, Ice Princess found running room approaching the top of the stretch and despite racing a bit green down the lane, was a handy winner. Courageous Girl, a 34-1 shot who dueled on the lead with Nicky Scissors, finished a good second, 5 3/4 lengths clear of Myawaya. Holmdel Park and Nicky Scissors complete the order of finish.

The win was the third from four starts for Ice Princess, a daughter of Palace Malice owned by Flying P Stable, Corms Racing, and Randy Hill and trained by Danny Gargan. Her lone loss was a fourth in the Grade 1 Frizette last October at Belmont.

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Gargan said he was using the Maddie May, a one-turn mile, as a prep for the Grade 2, $300,000 Gazelle Stakes, a two-turn, 1 1/8-mile race here on April 4.

“The further she goes, the better she’s going to be,” Gargan said from Florida where he watched the race via simulcast. “We’re hoping we have a filly that can be live in the Gazelle. If we can win it, that would be great, if we can be second in it that would be great. Worst-case scenario we have the best New York-bred 3-year-old filly.”

Ice Princess beat three of these same rivals in a first-level allowance race here on Jan. 20. She rallied from seventh that day, more than five lengths off the pace.

Sunday, she was never more than two lengths off the pace under Franco, who had her just behind Courageous Girl and Nicky Scissors who dueled through a half-mile in 47.15 seconds.

As Nicky Scissors faded, Ice Princess slipped between her and Myawaya approaching the quarter pole. Once in the clear, Ice Princess set sail after Courageous Girl, and though she lugged in a path as she was going past, she took over inside the eighth pole. Franco gave her one smack with the left-hand whip and Ice Princess straightened out and won in hand.

“She still is a little green,” Franco said. “When she made the lead, she kind of pulled up a little bit. Once you start working on her, she gets going.”

Ice Princess covered the mile in 1:39.70 and returned $2.90.

“She got trapped in there the whole way, nowhere to go, drug herself through a hole and she was playing that that horse late," Gargan said. “I’m proud of her.”