HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainers Bill Mott, Saffie Joseph Jr., and Ian Wilkes sent out the first-, third-, and fourth-place finishers, respectively, here one week ago in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth. The same trio will be back to do battle once again Saturday at Gulfstream Park, saddling the top three choices, Nic’s Style, Spirit Wind, and Into Champagne, in the $165,000 Hurricane Bertie Stakes.
The Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie, for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs, is the main event on an 11-race program that also includes the $115,000 Silks Run going five furlongs on the turf.
Mott, who won the Fountain of Youth with Sovereignty, will bring Nic’s Style into the Hurricane Bertie having won each of her last three starts and six of seven lifetime outings. The 5-year-old daughter of Uncaptured began her career with two eye-catching, one-sided victories locally with Mott’s former assistant Ralph Nicks.
Nic’s Style joined Mott’s barn upon Nicks’s retirement a year ago and has won four of five starts since. Her lone setback was a second-place finish behind the odds-on Ways and Means in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom on a sloppy track last fall at Aqueduct. In her most recent outing, Nic’s Style got up in the closing strides to prove a popular but very narrow winner over the speedy Dazzling Blue in the Minaret Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 8.
Nic’s Style is likely to vie for favoritism in the Hurricane Bertie with Spirit Wind, whose Joseph-trained stablemate Neoequos finished third in the Fountain of Youth. Spirit Wind, a multiple graded stakes winner who finished third in the 2024 Hurricane Bertie, is coming off a game and popular three-quarter-length decision in the 5 1/2-furlong Poinsettia Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Dec. 21.
“Originally I was going to leave her at Oaklawn for the second leg of the series there, but I just couldn’t train her for the race to my satisfaction because of the weather. So I decided to bring her home and point for this one instead,” Joseph explained. “Obviously she really likes Gulfstream Park and she’s fit enough despite missing some time. I don’t think that’s an issue, although I do feel that 6 1/2 furlongs is definitely her max [distance] at this level.”
Joseph also entered R Disaster off a wire-to-wire allowance victory here earlier in the meet for which she earned a career best 92 Beyer Figure, and recent maiden winner Save Time.
Wilkes’s Into Champagne makes her first start since finishing seventh after prompting the early pace in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks nine months earlier at Churchill Downs. She was sidelined the rest of the year due to foot issues. The lightly raced Into Mischief filly had made her three previous starts locally, a series of strong efforts that included a victory in the six-furlong Glitter Woman and a second in the Grade 2 Davona Dale during the 2023-24 Championship meet.
“Going into the Oaks we always wondered about the distance, “ Wailkes said. “Now we’ll just make her a sprinter. This is what she wants to do.”
Into Champagne, whose stablemate Burnham Square finished fourth as the 9-5 favorite here a week ago in the Fountain of Youth, has had a series of eight works prepping for her return, including a bullet five furlongs in 59 seconds at Palm Meadows on Feb. 28.
Ruthless Rua and Done Enough complete the compact lineup.
Silks Run
Coppola will likely be heavily favored to continue his dominance of the local turf sprint division in the Silks Run, having captured both the Janus and Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint earlier in the meet. Both those victories came in gate-to-wire fashion from outside posts with Tyler Gaffalione aboard.
Coppola will have neither an outside post, having drawn the rail, or Gaffalione, who will be at Tampa on Saturday, for the Silks Run.
“He loves it here. He loves the five-eighths,” said his trainer, Dale Romans. “He’s doing good. We’ll give it a go again.”
Coppola may find himself getting a bit more of a challenge for the early lead the third time around with Souper Quest, who led to midstretch in the Tampa Bay Downs Turf Dash in his most recent start, in the lineup.
A contested pace scenario would likely help Capture the Lion get a measure of revenge against Coppola after finishing second, less than a length behind that rival, in the Gulfstream Turf Sprint. It was his first start since being claimed by Joseph for $62,500 less than four weeks earlier.
“He was wide the whole way from a tough post,” Joseph said of Capture the Lion. “It actually looked like he was going to drop back at the quarter pole, but he stayed on really well. Smaller field this time. Hopefully he can work out a better trip.”
Other key contenders include the in-form Biz Biz Buzz, off the claim for trainer Jose D’Angelo, and Reef Runner, who finished third in the Gulfstream Turf Sprint and fourth in the Turf Dash at Tampa.
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