Neecie Marie gets up in final strides to upset Beaugay

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Turning for home in Saturday’s Grade 3, $169,750 Beaugay Stakes at Aqueduct, Neecie Marie was about a dozen lengths behind dueling leaders Whitebeam and Spirit And Glory. Butch Reid, the trainer of Neecie Marie, was hoping to get third.

That wasn’t good enough for Neecie Marie as the filly, under a vigorous hand ride from Joel Rosario, rallied past the tiring pacesetters to win the Beaugay by a neck. Whitebeam, the 1-2 favorite returning from a 5 1/2-month layoff, finished second, a head in front of Spirit and Glory. Quarrel and Aspray completed the order of finish.

“Turning for home I’m thinking, ‘come on, you can be third in here,' “ Reid said. "And that kick the last eighth of a mile was incredible. That’s why you get guys like Joel Rosario.”

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Rosario wasn’t sure he was going to get there, either. Neecie Marie, who was 13 lengths back after three-quarters of mile run in 1:11.62, did save ground around the second turn. In the stretch, Rosario took Neecie Marie to the outside and she began to pick it up.

“I knew she was moving but the horses in front they kept going and it looked like maybe they were a little far away, but she made up a lot of ground,” Rosario said. “I said maybe we were going to get a little piece of this, but man she’s got a huge stride. It looked like the closer we get the better she got.”

Neecie Marie, a 4-year-old Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Cross Traffic owned by Michael Milam, covered the 1 1/16 miles over good ground in 1:42.80 (92 Beyer Speed Figure) and returned $17.80 as the fourth choice in the five-horse field.

Neecie Marie had finished second in a couple of graded stakes run here last year. She was making her first start since November when she finished fifth in the off-the-turf Mrs. Revere Stakes at Churchill Downs.

Reid said he was anxious to get Neecie Marie’s season started because he thinks there are big things ahead for her as a 4-year-old. She could be pointed to the Grade 1, $750,000 New York Stakes at Saratoga on June 7.

“She grew and put on weight, she’s a bigger, stronger filly than she was last year no doubt about it,” Reid said.

Whitebeam, who won last year’s Grade 1 Diana, was making her first start since a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar last December.

She dueled with Spirit And Glory, the front-running winner of the Plenty of Grace Stakes through a half-mile in 47.87 and six furlongs in 1:11.62 and she couldn’t really shake her until late, but Neecie Marie ran by her in the final yards.

“I think off the layoff she maybe felt it a little bit on the softer ground today,” Chad Brown, trainer of Whitebeam said. “I think on firmer ground I would have had her a little bit more prepared off the layoff to kick on and still find a little more late. I think the softish ground may have fatigued her that last 70 yards.”

Brown said he had no excuse for Aspray who finished last. Aspray had won four of her first five previous starts.

“I don’t have any excuse for her,” Brown said. “She’s handled this course, she’s handled a little bit of off ground before, she was doing good. I have no idea why she didn’t fire.”

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