Francesca Le Donne Photo

Nicodemus prevails in G3 Westchester thriller

by Keith McCalmont

Nicodemus overcame Stan the Man in a stirring stretch duel to win Saturday's Grade 3, $200,000 Westchester at Belmont Park.

Trained by Linda Rice for Everything's Cricket Racing and Lawrence Goichman, Nicodemus arrived at the one-mile test over a sloppy and sealed Belmont main track from a rallying fourth in the nine-furlong Grade 3 Excelsior last month.

Mike Luzzi settled Nicodemus in third position as Stan the Man set a pressured pace, marking the quarter-mile in 23.08 seconds and the half-mile in 45.45 under close watch from Hoffenheim.

The even-money mutuel favorite Prince Lucky tracked on the outside from fourth position as Stan the Man led the field into the turn. Luzzi urged Nicodemus into contention as the field straightened away and engaged Stan the Man with an eighth of a mile to run. The rivals rallied head and head to the wire, but it was Nicodemus who earned his first career stakes win, by a neck, in a final time of 1:35.07.

Sunny Ridge, Hoffenheim, Realm, Prince Lucky, and Bandua completed the order of finish. Carlino was scratched.

The victory marked the first stakes win at Belmont for Luzzi since guiding Five Iron to victory in the 2014 renewal of the Grade 3 Fort Marcy.

Luzzi, aboard Nicodemus for the first time, said he was confident down the lane despite the slim winning margin.

"I was a little teeny bit worried about being too close," said Luzzi. "Just not knowing the horse and watching his other races and the advice that Linda gave me, I thought there would be one or two other horses in front of me. He placed himself there and I wasn't going to take it away from him. I was pretty confident turning for home."

It was the sixth stakes win of the year and the first at the 2019 Belmont spring/summer meet for Rice.

Rice said the turn back in distance made the winning difference for the improving colt.

"This was a nice win. Luzzi did a good job and put him in a nice spot. It's nice to pick up this graded stakes win following an effort like that," said Rice. "I was telling the owners that I thought he'd be better at one-turn and that turned out to be the case today. We'll certainly enjoy this win before planning where we'll want to run next."

A dark bay son of Candy Ride, bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm, Nicodemus banked $110,000 in victory while improving his record to three wins and two seconds from seven starts. He paid $18.60 to win on a $2 win ticket.

Live racing resumes on Sunday at Belmont Park with a nine-race card highlighted by the Grade 2, $250,000 Ruffian Stakes carded as Race 8. First post time is 1:30 p.m.