Ice Princess a viable single in mandatory payout Empire 6 sequence

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There is a mandatory payout of the Empire 6 on Sunday at Aqueduct, and a lot of handicappers may look to single Ice Princess in the $100,000 Maddie May Stakes.

Unfortunately, the mandatory payout lost some of its punch Friday afternoon when there was a single winning ticket worth $123,545. There had been a carryover of $69,156 coming into the card.

Beginning Sunday, the New York Racing Association plans to distribute the entire Empire 6 pool every two weeks, on Sundays. The Empire 6, a 20-cent wager that requires bettors to correctly select the winners of the last six races, will be offered on races 3 through 8. Post time Sunday is 1:20 p.m. Eastern, with the first leg of the Empire 6 set for 2:20 p.m.

The Maddie May, a one-mile race restricted to New York-bred 3-year-old fillies, goes as race 7. Ice Princess is coming off a 4 1/2-length victory in a first-level allowance race here Jan. 20. Despite getting off poorly and racing wide throughout, she rallied from last to defeat three of the four rivals she faces in the Maddie May.

“If she breaks, gets a good position down the backside, and ranges up in midstretch, she can run them over,” said Danny Gargan, who trains Ice Princess for Flying P Stable and Randy Hill. “She’s better now than she was last time. I didn’t work her much for that last race.”

Gargan is hoping to use the Maddie May, run as a one-turn mile, as a stepping-stone to the Grade 3, $300,000 Gazelle going 1 1/8 miles here April 4.

“Going a mile and an eighth or a mile and a quarter, shes’s an open-company filly,” Gargan said. “They don’t have those races in New York right now.”

In that Jan. 20 race, Ice Princess defeated Myawaya (second), Holmdel Park (third), and Courageous Girl (fifth). That trio is back in this heat.

The one newcomer in the group is Nicky Scissors, a daughter of Mission Impazible trained by Jason Servis who is coming off a 10 1/2-length, front-running victory in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race here Jan. 17. Stonezapper, the runner-up from that race, came back to win her next start.

Nicky Scissors will break from the rail and figures to come out running under white-hot jockey Eric Cancel who posted his fifth consecutive multiple-win day Thursday at Aqueduct.

Gargan has another contender in the Empire 6 sequence with Galway Empire in the fifth, a maiden $25,000 claimer for statebreds. Galway Empire finished third at 4-5 in this same condition on Jan. 4. Galway Empire has since been gelded and will wear blinkers for the first time in this one-mile race. Galway Empire could play out as the primary speed in a race void of such an entity.

Race 6, a starter allowance/optional $50,000 claimer for 3-year-olds, looks like it could set up nicely for Dan the Man Can, trained by Eddie Barker. Dan the Man Can has run well in his three fast-track starts and should get a fast track and a terrific pace setup Sunday.

The final leg of the sequence, a statebred maiden $40,000 claimer going six furlongs, drew a field of 13. Tapizearance will likely be favored in his second start off the claim for Brad Cox. He will be getting on a fast track for the first time since November and has three Beyer Speed Figures in the 60s over fast surfaces.

Catzalionbythetale improved with blinkers last out for Linda Rice, who also sends out the first-time starter Lake Rudolph, a son of Mineshaft. Fridaybeers, a firster for Todd Pletcher, has been training at Palm Meadows in Florida most of the winter.