Nicks sends out two with talent
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A field of eight fillies and mares will contest Thursday’s $43,000 allowance feature, with leading trainer Ralph Nicks holding the upper hand. He sends out a pair of promising 3-year-olds, Crowning Affair and Ad Lutem, each of whom scored an impressive maiden win here earlier this spring.
The Whisper Hill Farm homebred Crowning Affair registered one of the more surprising maiden special weight victories of the local season, drawing off to a 3 1/4-length triumph at odds of 30-1 on April 24 in his second start. The son of Giant’s Causeway and the stakes-winning mare Capote’s Crown earned a 76 Beyer Speed Figure while going seven furlongs under jockey Juan Leyva.
Ad Lutem, by Midnight Lute, was bet to 9-5 for her debut March 24 and ran to her backing, winning by seven lengths in a race restricted to Florida-breds. A GoldMark Farm homebred, Ad Lutem stretched out to a mile in her next start and faltered badly after contesting a suicidal early pace to finish a well-beaten fifth as the 3-10 favorite.
A couple of stakes-placed fillies, Will Be Magical and Summer Rae, stand the best chance of upsetting the Nicks duo.
Will Be Magical was third in the restricted OBS Championship in Ocala, Fla., on Jan. 26 and has not started since finishing far back in an overnight stakes on turf here Feb. 15. She will be making her first start since being transferred to trainer Stanley Gold upon the retirement of her former trainer, Bill Kaplan, earlier in the meet.
Summer Rae, third in the Summer Winds Stakes on turf here last summer, has been idle since mid-September and is also in new hands for her return, making her first start for trainer Ralph Ziadie.