Nicole H to turn it around for Michael Hushion in Vagrancy Stakes at Belmont Park
John K. Waken and Gem Racing’s 5-year-old mare, Nicole H, started off the 2012 season brightly with two wins in two races, but fell away in the next 3 starts, as she lost all three of them, as she recently comes off a fourth place finish in the My Juliet
Stakes after being sent as the favourite.
Bred in Kentucky by JMJ Racing Stables, Nicole H is quick to put the losing streak to bed by running in the Grade 2, $200,000 Vagrancy Handicap at Belmont Park on 2 June, 2012, within a week’s time after her defeat in the My Juliet Stakes.
Michael E. Hushion’s trainee kicked off the season at Aqueduct racetrack, where she participated in the Interborough Stakes at about six furlongs. She won the race quiet comfortable over second place finisher, Winning Image, and topped the distance in 1
minute and 10.99 seconds as Aquitania finished third.
The Mr. Greeley mare then downed the Correction Stakes field also at Aqueduct racetrack going at about six furlongs, completing the distance in 1 minute and 11.08 seconds, with Honchis’n Ponchis in second and Golden Mystery in third.
From then on, her campaign took a dip as she lost three in a row, starting from Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Stakes at Laurel Park, where she lost but posted a strong second place finish to winner, Magical Feeling, and then third to winner It’s Tricky in the
Grade 2 Distaff Handicap over at seven furlongs.
“She ran a really good race over there,” said Hushion of Nicole H’s performance in the My Juliet. “I thought there would be a possibility, since she had had a nice rest before the race, that she could run back quickly. When I saw her the next day, and the
day after that, with the way she came out of the race, I thought it was the thing to do.”
Now, Nicole H will be breaking from post number 3 under jockey Ramon Dominguez in the Vagrancy Handicap, which will be run over a distance of six and a half furlongs, as the race reeled in seven, three-year-old and up fillies and mares.
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