Nic's Style clashes with Beth's Dream in City of Ocala

A potentially interesting showdown between open-company stakes winners Nic’s Style and Beth’s Dream is on tap in Saturday’s $100,000 City of Ocala Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

The City of Ocala and the $100,000 Marion County for males are for progeny for Florida-based stallions and are both run at seven furlongs.

Nic’s Style, a 4-year-old daughter of Uncaptured trained by Bill Mott, is 4 for 5, her lone defeat coming to Grade 1 winner Ways and Means in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom at Aqueduct on Sept. 29. Nic’s Style came back to win the Pumpkin Pie Stakes by 3 1/4 lengths at Aqueduct, her first try at seven furlongs.

“She always indicated a little farther was going to be fine,” Mott said. “Someday maybe we’ll try a mile, though that might be stretching it.”

Nic’s Style will break from the rail under Junior Alvarado.

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Nic’s Style and Beth’s Dream are the co-highweights at 124 pounds.

Beth’s Dream, trained by Victor Barboza Jr., had a four-race winning streak snapped when she finished second to Soul of an Angel in the Grade 3 Princess Rooney at Gulfstream Park on Sept. 21. That result looks better considering Soul of an Angel came back to upset the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in her next start.

Barboza was between this race and the $125,000 Rampart Stakes at Gulfstream on Dec. 26, but, as of Thursday morning, was leaning toward the City of Ocala given the expectation that Soul of an Angel could run in the Rampart.

“My mare gave a very good performance in the last race. The seven furlongs is not the best distance for my mare, the one mile is much better,” Barboza said. “The track at Tampa is good for me, the track is very fast.

Beth’s Dream, with Samy Camacho named to ride, is drawn outside of two of other two speeds in the field, Nic’s Style and R Disaster, though Hopesndreams, a 30-1 shot, has speed from the outside.

Barboza does send out an off-the-pace runner in Battle Cry, who two starts back finished third in the Princess Rooney. Most recently, Battle Cry shipped to Laurel, where she finished a well-beaten seventh in the Thirty Eight Go Go Stakes going 1 1/16-miles.

“I don’t know what happened in the last race, whether she was not happy with the track at Laurel or the ship, I don’t know,” Barboza said. “If the pace is fast she’s very dangerous.”

Dream Concert finished second in this race last year. Olga completes the field.

The City of Ocala goes as race 6 on a card that begins at 12:15 p.m.

Marion County

Pure Class, winner of the Sophomore Stakes at Tampa in March, returns to the Oldsmar oval for the $100,000 Marion County Stakes.

Trained by David Fawkes, Pure Class came off a five-month layoff to win an allowance/optional-claimer at Gulfstream on Nov. 1 with a career-best 78 Beyer Figure.

“He won off five months and I thought he ran his best race,” Fawkes said. “He’s going to move forward. It’s going to take that to win.”

Pure Class gets in at 119 pounds, five fewer than Loco Abarrio, who is the 8-5 morning-line favorite off a half-length victory in the Gil Campbell Memorial for Florida-breds at Gulfstream on Oct. 19. Loco Abarrio beat Big Martini – also in this field – having to withstand a jockey’s objection after drifting out in nearing the sixteenth pole.

“The stewards saw it our way, didn’t DQ him. He’s got a habit of that, but I thought he ran a super race,” trainer Ron Spatz said. “He did everything we asked him to do. He likes seven-eighths, he’s got a good post.”

Following the Campbell Memorial, Big Martini finished fourth in a high-class allowance won by the Grade 2 winner Steal Sunshine. Big Martini finished third in this race last year.

Khozeiress has not run since finishing a well-beaten fourth behind Subsanador in the Grade 3 Philip Iselin this summer at Monmouth.

Holiday Pay beat Pure Class in a maiden race at Gulfstream in November 2023. He comes out of a fourth-place finish in an overnight handicap at Gulfstream on Nov. 9.

The Marion County is carded as race 2.

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