Aqueduct: Dearly Precious pace belongs to Cubicle Queen

Tom Keyser

Cubicle Queen originally drew the rail in Dearly Precious for its scheduled running on Feb. 9, but improved to the three hole when the race was redrawn for Sunday's card.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though post position no longer dictates her running tactics, Cubicle Queen still will likely play catch-me-if-you-can in Sunday’s $75,000 Dearly Precious Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct.

The Dearly Precious was scheduled for Feb. 9, but that card was canceled due to a snowstorm, and this six-furlong race was rescheduled for Sunday. Originally carded with five runners, the Dearly Precious picked up an additional starter when trainer George Weaver supplemented True Fortune to the race.

When the race was originally drawn, Cubicle Queen had the rail, which basically would have forced jockey David Cohen to send her away from the gate.

When the race was re-drawn Thursday, Cubicle Queen drew post 3. Still, trainer Charlton Baker expects Cubicle Queen to be on the lead provided she breaks cleanly.

“I think if she breaks she’ll take it to the lead. She’s fast enough to do that,” said Baker, who co-owns Cubicle Queen in partnership with Dominic Bocanelli’s Ferentino Farm.

Cubicle Queen won a maiden race over the inner track on Jan. 5. Her two previous starts came in races that turned out to be quite productive in producing next-out winners. She finished second in her debut to next-out stakes winner Lighthouse Bay. Cubicle Queen also bled in that race, according to Baker.

In her second start, Cubicle Queen finished fourth in a race that produced four next-out winners, including the highly regarded Live Lively. Cubicle Queen emerged from that second start with mucus in her lungs.

Baker said the week delay should have no bearing on Cubicle Queen’s performance.

“I think if she runs her race she’ll be tough,” Baker said. “I feel pretty good about the race as far as training and preparing; everything went good.”

Cubicle Queen could face pressure from Kiss the Lady, who is drawn in post 3. Kiss the Lady, who finished fifth in the same Oct. 8 race that Cubicle Queen finished second, comes out of a second-place finish to Lady Banks in the Ruthless Stakes here on Jan. 12. Jose Ortiz rides Kiss the Lady.

Maggiesfreuddnslip, who scratched out of a starter allowance here on Friday, is another who has speed.

A contested pace could assist True Fortune, who rallied from off the pace to win a first-level allowance race for New York-breds on Jan. 31. Trainer George Weaver took blinkers off True Fortune off for that race after putting them on following a win last August at Saratoga.

“We put the blinkers on after a win because she was looking around a lot,” Weaver said. “After a couple of lackluster fourth-place finishes we took the blinkers off and even afterward Junior [Alvarado] said she came off the bridle and was still not completely forward. But it produced a win.”

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin has the uncoupled entry of Elghayhoor, a maiden who gets Lasix for the first time, and Railtown Girl, a debut winner at Laurel Park who finished third in the Ruthless Stakes here on Jan. 12.