Filly gives Nishes solid win

Kevin and Kim Nish of KMN Racing have owned thoroughbreds for just five years and already they have experienced some of the greatest and most difficult aspects of the sport.

The victory by Minks Aprise in the $55,375 Camilla Urso Stakes on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields falls somewhere in the middle.

The Nishes were partners with radio-TV personality Jim Rome on two-time Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Mizdirection and also on Eclipse Award and fivetime Grade 1 winner Shared Belief. But Shared Belief had to be euthanized this year because of a rupture in his stomach.

Minks Aprise was one of three fillies the Nishes bought as yearlings at the 2013 Keeneland September sale, along with Lutine Belle and Lindisfarne.

“All three are now stakes winners, and we thought Minks Aprise was the best one,” Kevin Nish said. “She loves the Tapeta.”

The Camilla Urso Stakes was Minks Aprise’s fourth race on Golden Gate Fields’ Tapeta Footings synthetic surface, and she now has three wins and a close-up second. She also has won one of four starts in Southern California.

In Saturday’s 6-furlong race for fillies and mares, Minks Aprise lagged in last place — as much as 8½ lengths from the lead for the first half-mile as Fast and Foxy ran to the front. Too much isnot enough gained from second place to duel for the lead with Fast and Foxy inside the eighth pole, but Minks Aprise gobbled them both up and won going away by 2¼ lengths. Briefly: Jerry Hollendorfer, who trains Minks Aprise, enjoyed a much richer win Saturday when Tara’s Tango ($7.20) rallied past favored Taris for a 1-length victory in the Grade 1, $400,000 Santa Margarita Stakes at Santa Anita. … Cupid ($7.80) led from the start and gave trainer Bob Baffert his sixth victory in the past seven years in the Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park.