Trainer Butch Reid is based in Pennsylvania and has scored the bulk of his recent victories there. But New York is his home away from home when it comes to notching graded stakes wins.
On May 11, the Parx Racing-stabled trainer took his second graded stakes win of the year, both at Aqueduct Racetrack, when Michael Milam’s Neecie Marie rallied from last to catch front-runners Whitebeam and Spirit And Glory in the $169,750 Beaugay Stakes (G3T).
NEECIE MARIE comes out of nowhere to win the G3 Beaugay Stakes! 🤯
She’s the 4YO daughter of @spendthriftfarm stallion Cross Traffic, ridden by @JRosarioJockey for trainer Butch Reid. pic.twitter.com/pp9NLAogV9
— NYRA (🌳) (@TheNYRA) May 11, 2024
Her victory followed an earlier score in 2024 from the Reid-trained Uncle Heavy , owned by Milam and LC Racing, in the Feb. 3 Withers Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct. Since 2020, five of Reid’s nine graded stakes wins have been in the Empire State.
Under Joel Rosario, she overcame a 13-length deficit to prevail by a neck, making up seven lengths in the final eighth of a mile to catch the fatigued leaders. She completed 1 1/16 miles on drying-out “good” turf in 1:42.80 and returned $17.80 to win.
“It looked like a daunting task turning for home,” Reid said of deficit at the top of the stretch, “but this is a nice filly and I think a bigger, stronger filly than last year, too. We’re looking for big things from her.”
Pace-pressing Whitebeam inched by front-running Spirit And Glory to grab the place by a head.
Racing for the first time as a 4-year-old, Neecie Marie, posted her fifth victory in 10 starts and her first graded stakes victory after two graded placings in 2023. Bred in Pennsylvania by Jon Marshall, she is a bay daughter of Cross Traffic out of the Posse mare Lode Lady . Cross Traffic stands for $10,000 at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky.
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