BY BROCK SHERIDAN

Jockey Junior Alvarado’s composure paid off aboard Florida-bred Nic’s Style, who came with a belated run down the lane to win the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie at Gulfstream Park Saturday. In winning the $163,000 contest against five other fillies and mares, Nic’s Style won for her fourth consecutive stakes and seventh race in eight career starts while covering six-and-a-half furlongs in 1:16.53 on the fast track.

Florida-bred Spirit Wind launched from the outside post six as if she was given a head start and jockey Luis Saez had her quickly racing to clear lead down the backstretch. Florida-bred R Disaster and Edgard Zayas sprinted up to apply pressure through a breakneck quarter-mile in :21.67 as they were four lengths clear of Nic’s Style in third. Spirit Wind and R Disaster extended the margin to six lengths around the far turn while clicking off a half-mile in :44.13 before Nic’s Style began to close in as they came down the lane.

Spirit Wind put up the white flag in the final furlong but R Disaster was game to the finish as Nic’s Style won by a neck as the 6-5 favorite. Nic’s Style was three-and-a-half lengths clear of Into Champagne in third followed by Spirit Wind, Save Time and Ruthless Rus.

  “I had a great trip. The two horses went kind of quick in front, but I knew I was traveling well because my filly, I can feel that she is moving along pretty quick too,” Alvarado said. “She wasn’t going in 21 [seconds] but I can feel her going in 22 flat, easy. I’m guessing they had to come back to me.

“When we turned for home I could have maybe gone inside because they were going very wide but normally when you’re closing with horses you want to make sure you’re on the outside. They feel more comfortable doing that. I took my chance knowing that she was going to be able to pick them up at the end,” he added. “Every time I asked for something she was there for me.”

Nic’s Style paid $4.40 to win.

Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott for Stephen Rousseau, Nic’s Style began her winning streak in November with a three-and-a-quarter-lengths score in the $150,000 Pumpkin Pike (Listed) going seven furlongs during the Belmont at Big A meet at Aqueduct. She then returned to her native Florida to win the $98,000 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes City of Ocala going seven furlongs on Dec. 14 and the $92,000 Minaret over six furlongs on Feb. 8, both at Tampa Bay Downs.

Nic’s Style is the fourth Florida-bred winner of the Hurricane Bertie and first since Golden Mystery in 2013. Other Florida-bred winners were Swept Away (2001), House Party (2004) and R Holiday Mood in 2012.

In addition to earning the $89,570 first prize in the Hurricane Bertie, Nic’s Style took down $10,500 in Florida-bred bonus money presented by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owner’s Association. R Disaster earned $3,000 in FTBOA Florida-bred bonuses for finishing second to bring her payday to $34,700.

Nic’s Style has now earned $490,970 in her eight races with her only loss coming when second to Ways and Means in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom, run over a sloppy six-and-a-half furlongs at Aqueduct in September.

Rousseau purchased Nic’s Style for $25,000 out of Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck’s Summerfield consignment at the 2021 Ocala Breeders’ Sales October Yearling auction.

Nic’s Style is by Uncaptured out of Sense When, by Street Sense and was bred in Florida by Ken D’Oyen’s D’Oyen Thoroughbreds LLC based in Carson, Calif.

Sense When has three winners from three starters and five foals with Nic’s Style being her only black-type performer. Sense When has an unnamed 2-year-old colt by Higher Power that is cataloged as Hip 512 in next week’s OBS March Sale. Also bred by D’Oyen, he is consigned by Horseland Stables as agent. She also has an unnamed yearling colt by Mo Town and a weanling filly by Mandaloun, both bred by D’Oyen.

Return to March 8 issue of Wire to Wire