Noble and a Beauty romps in Cicada

Noble and a Beauty missed by a nose in her first attempt at winning a stakes race two months ago. There would be no such disappointment on Sunday at Aqueduct.

Noble and a Beauty, sitting third in the field of five early, took control of Sunday’s $100,000 Cicada Stakes in upper stretch and galloped home an eight-length winner of the six-furlong stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Eloquent Tribute, who stumbled badly at the break, nosed out Overprepared for second.

Hard to Stay Notgo, bet down to 6-5 favoritism, finished fourth, followed by Spotted Heart. Lindisfarne was scratched over concerns about the proper administration of Lasix, according to the stewards.

Noble and a Beauty, a daughter of Noble Causeway owned and bred by Len Riggio’s My Meadowview Farm, won her debut last November over the main track. On Jan. 4, she lost a nose decision to the Grade 2 winner Paulassilverlining in the Ruthless Stakes.

After missing the Busher Stakes due to a temperature, Noble and a Beauty’s connections opted to keep her sprinting for the time being and were rewarded with a dominant victory.

Under Jose Ortiz, Noble and a Beauty raced in third position while Hard to Stay Notgo, under Angel Arroyo, sprinted to the lead through an opening quarter of 23.96 seconds while being chased by Overprepared.

Noble and a Beauty drew closer around the turn, and shot to the front inside the three-sixteenths pole en route to the victory.

“She broke good and everything went like we hoped,” Ortiz said. “[Overprepared] had blinkers on, so I let her go, then I put myself sitting third on the outside, so she was in perfect position. When I asked her to go I had of plenty of horse. She relaxes well and is a really nice horse."

The win was the third on the card for Ortiz, who has built a 71-62 lead over his brother Irad Ortiz Jr., for leading rider honors at the meet. There are seven days of racing left.

Noble and a Beauty, trained by Rick Violette, covered the six furlongs in 1:13.74 and returned $5.10.

Pick six carryover of $23,827

When the stewards disqualified heavily favored Agate from first for interference in the stretch, it resulted in a pick six carryover of $23,827 into Thursday’s card.