BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Sent to the post as the 2-5 favorite, Florida-bred Nic’s Style won for the fifth time in six career starts with an easy stakes-record victory in $100,000 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes City of Ocala at Tampa Bay Downs Saturday. Trained by Hall of Fame conditioner Bill Mott for Stephen Rousseau, Nic’s Style covered seven furlongs in 1:21.84, eclipsing the previous record of 1:22.40 set by Surprise Wedding in the inaugural City of Ocala in 2017.
Breaking from the inside post among the five fillies and mares by registered Florida stallions, Nic’s Style chased R Disaster and 9-5 second choice Beth’s Dream out of the backstretch chute.
R Disaster led Beth’s Dream by a length for the run down the backstretch as Nic’s Style and jockey Junior Alvarado raced in third on the rail from another half-length back. R Disaster continued to lead around the turn after a quarter mile in :22.38 with Beth’s Dream second to her outside and Dream Concert making a three-wide move to take third from Nic’s Style.
R Disaster was still in front coming out of the turn when Alvarado cut the corner with Nic’s Style and shot to the front while passing the three-sixteenths marker. R Disaster put of a fight until the final sixteenth when Nic’s Style darted clear to win by two-and-a-half lengths. R Disaster held second, another two-and-a-quarter lengths in front of Dream Concert in third. Beth’s Dream was fourth with Battle Cry fifth. Hopesndreams and Olga were scratched.
“I just sat right behind the pace early and she was traveling well, but I didn’t think she was giving me her best early,” Alvarado said. “I told myself ‘don’t panic’ and tried to get her fit underneath me. When we hit the five-sixteenth-mile pole I knew what I had, and I was just waiting to see whether I’d go inside or outside [of R Disaster].
“At that point, it was just a matter of time.”
Nic’s Style paid $2.80 to win.
“My philosophy is to try to run for the most money with the easiest competition,” Rousseau said. “This race didn’t come up as easy as I’d hoped, but she did the job anyway.
“I’ve been racing for 30 years and I’ve always dreamed of winning a Florida Stallion Stakes, so I just did.”
Nic’s Style broke her maiden by more than six lengths in her first start in May of 2022 but did not race again for 19 months when she won a first condition, $20,000 optional claiming by 10 ¼ lengths at Gulfstream in December of 2023. Nine months later she made her third start, and first under Mott, at Saratoga Race Course and she again responded with authority, winning a six-furlong allowance race by five-and-three-quarters lengths in August. She suffered her first career loss when second to Ways and Means in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom at Aqueduct in September but returned to win the $150,000 Pumpkin Pie by three-and-a-quarters lengths after seven furlongs at Aqueduct on Nov. 3.
Nic’s Style is by Uncaptured out of Sense When, by Street Sense and was bred in Florida by Kenneth D’Oyen of Carson, Calif., in the name of his D’Oyen Thoroughbreds LLC. She has now earned $328,400 from five wins in six starts with one second. Rousseau purchased her for $25,000 at the 2021 Ocala Breeders’ Sales October Yearling Sale where she was consigned by Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck’s Summerfield.
“Ralph Nicks picked her out for me [at OBS], and the first time she raced, she ran brilliantly. Then she got injured, and it was a year-and-a-half before she came back.
“She just needed time, and Ralph was very patient. Owning her is a surreal experience,” Rousseau said. “Right now we’re taking things as they come, and whatever Hall of Famer Bill Mott says to do, I’m on the plane right there.”
D’Oyen, a native of Jamaica, said he enjoyed following Nic’s Style with Rousseau.
“I saw Stephen [Rousseau] at the [OBS] sale [in 2018] and he said, ‘hey I bought your horse,’” D’Oyen said. “So I have really enjoyed this journey with Nic’s Style because Stephen is also from Jamaica and is a friend.”
D’Oyen owns Friendship Farm in Ocala where he keeps seven broodmares including Sense When and other stakes-producers Let’s Dance Charlie and E Built This City.
“[Nic’s Style] was a smart filly and very well behaved and intelligent. All of the foals out of [Sense When] are smart and big strong looking horses including her.
“I’m a small breeder and only started breeding horses recently—relatively speaking,” D’Oyen said. “I don’t want to say I’ve been lucky but I do a lot of homework and have had some success breeding stakes winners.”
D’Oyen also bred Florida-bred stakes-placed runner Fulminate and multiple graded stakes-winner Elm Drive.
Sense When has three winners from three starters and five foals including an unnamed yearling colt by Higher Power and a weanling colt by Mo Town. She was bred to Mandaloun in 2024. Sense When was purchased by Kenneth D’Oyen for $6,000 out of the Summerfield consignment at the 2018 OBS Winter Mixed Sale. D’Oyen said he plans to sell the Higher Power colt at the 2025 OBS March Sale.
