Nasty Storm hangs tough

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Nasty Storm gamely held off heavily favored Love at Noon to win the $109,700 Dogwood Stakes, reversing the form that took her to a 13th-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks three weeks earlier.

Always prominent from the start of the 1 1/16-mile, Grade 3 Dogwood, Nasty Storm overtook Happily Unbridled, then held off Love at Noon to win by a neck. Golly Greeley finished third, another 3 1/2 lengths back.

Nasty Storm, trained by Dallas Stewart, returned $13.80 to win as third choice in a field of seven 3-year-old fillies.

For Nasty Storm, a Kentucky-bred Gulch filly who finished second in the Alcibiades and Golden Rod at 2, the Dogwood victory was her third overall and first in a stakes. She finished in 1:43.41 over a fast track.