Nice as Pie switches to turf, tests win streak in Mamzelle

Nice as Pie rides a four-race win streak, the last two of those in stakes competition, into the $225,000 Mamzelle on Saturday at Churchill Downs. Her running style, waiting well behind the leaders and coming with one big run, theoretically suits a full field with several pace players. Yet one yawning question arises: Will Nice as Pie be as nice going 5 1/2 furlongs on turf as she’s been sprinting over a synthetic surface?

Nice as Pie started once at age 2, getting walloped in a dirt race at Colonial Downs. Subsequently injured and out of action, she returned at Turfway Park, excelling over the Tapeta surface there, clearing the maiden ranks in her first start following the layoff, then rattling off an allowance win and victories in the Valdale and Serena’s Song. Nice as Pie has never posted a timed workout on grass, but trainer Kelsey Danner harbors some degree of confidence the surface switch will work.

“We thought she was turf last year; I just couldn’t get her on it,” said Danner, who trains Nice as Pie for the filly’s breeder, Dede McGehee. “She’s kind of a lightly built filly, looks turfy. The mare throws turf horses as well.”

One turf horse, at least. Nice as Pie is out of How Nice, by Include. Her older half-brother, Smokin’ Jay, is a stakes winner on turf and on Monday romped in a Horseshoe Indianapolis turf sprint race. Smokin’ Jay is by the grass influence Cairo Prince, while Nice as Pie’s sire, Tapiture, is a suspect 8 percent with turf sprinters. Nice as Pie’s other two siblings to race didn’t win on grass. The filly, if nothing else, is ready to run. She was entered at Keeneland in April and was scratched when her race rained onto dirt.

Many other Mamzelle options exist, especially with Nice as Pie listed at a paltry 9-5 on the track’s morning line. Second choice on the line at 7-2 is Imaboutago, who has started her career with a pair of turf sprint wins, a maiden at Gulfstream and a first-level allowance at Fair Grounds. There was not much behind the filly in the Fair Grounds race, and Imaboutago, drawn in post 12, is one of six fillies among 14 in the field’s main body with TimeformUS early pace ratings of 100 or higher. The pace could be hot, but so is Imaboutago’s trainer. Wesley Ward is 4 for 11 at Churchill this spring and 21 for 69 (30 percent) over the last 60 days.

Two other off-the-pace hopes merit special attention. Toupie can easily be forgiven for her regression last out in the Sandpiper at Tampa Bay; the race was contested on dirt, and Toupie is a grass horse. In November, she closed stoutly to win the Stewart Manor going six furlongs on the Aqueduct grass course, and in September she was second behind the colt No Nay Mets, among the fastest 2-year-old turf sprinters of 2023.

Cloudwalker makes her stakes debut in her third career race, and while she was third last out in a Keeneland allowance, the Brendan Walsh-trained filly probably would’ve won that day with a clean trip.

Not that one will be easy to find in this full field of 3-year-old filly sprinters, some of whom are proven on turf, others not so much.

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