Nonsuch Bay vs. bias

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Nonsuch Bay, whose last victory came in the Grade 1 Mother Goose in June, drops into allowance company in Monday's $46,000 feature at Gulfstream Park. The race will be decided at one mile and 70 yards.

Nonsuch Bay has started just four times since the Mother Goose. She finished fifth in both the Grade 1 Alabama and Grade 1 Gazelle Handicap and second in Belmont's Pebbles Handicap to close out her 3-year-old season. She opened her 2003 campaign with a late-running third in the Grade 3, seven-furlong Shirley Jones Handicap.

Trainer Frank Alexander said he preferred to run Nonsuch Bay in a route rather than in a sprint stakes.

"She's ready to run and I needed to get a race into her, and this one suits her fine going two turns," he said.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle in Nonsuch Bay's path Monday is the racetrack, which has been extremely fast and speed-biased for much of the past month. Nonsuch Bay is at her best when running from off the pace going a route of ground.

"The racetrack just keeps getting quicker and quicker," said Alexander. "And while she showed speed in her early races here last winter, that's not her style now. And I'm not going to change her style because of the racetrack."

Colonial Glitter, who breaks from the rail, may prove the main danger and the one to catch. She is stretching out around two turns off a series of sprint races. Colonial Glitter won Turfway Park's one-mile Bourbonette by 10 1/2 lengths last March. She will be reunited with jockey Pat Day on Monday.

Alchemilla seeks to rebound from an eighth-place finish in her 2003 debut, when she ran on grass for the first time in her career. She had won four of her first five starts while steadily ascending the allowance ranks, and then closed out her

3-year-old campaign with a ninth-place finish in the Grade 2 Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct.

Rounding out the lineup are Gentille Alouette, Stormy Frolic, Lead Story, and Katy Kat.

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