Aqueduct: Gracer looms as horse to beat in Dearly Precious Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – She is the most accomplished horse in the field, possesses the best early speed, and even drew a great post. It’s hard not to like Gracer in Saturday’s $100,000 Dearly Precious Stakes at Aqueduct.

“It does look like she’s the horse to beat,” said Tony Dutrow, who trains Gracer.

Gracer is the 2-5 morning-line favorite for the Dearly Precious, a six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies that was carded as the fourth race, removing a universal single for those playing the pick six but creating one for those playing the pick five.

Gracer, a daughter of Exchange Rate, is 3 for 5 in her career and is coming off stakes victories at Penn National and Laurel Park. Both of those wins came with the addition of blinkers, equipment Dutrow elected to try after Gracer finished a dull third in the Grade 2 Matron at Belmont Park on Sept. 29.

“I wasn’t happy with her race in the Matron,” Dutrow said. “I thought she had no spark. She seemed lost out there. Her two previous races, she wasn’t like that. The first two times she ran, she was in the race immediately and ran with intent and purpose.”

In winning the Blue Mountain Juvenile Fillies at Penn National in November, Gracer beat Raging Smoke, who came back to win an allowance race at Parx Racing. In winning the Marshua Stakes at Laurel on Jan. 4, Gracer defeated Jump Two, who came to New York to win a starter allowance Jan. 25.

“She didn’t make me feel she was good enough to take to south Florida,” said Dutrow, who has a string at Palm Meadows as well as at Fair Hill in Maryland. “But I thought she was good enough to do this.”

Gracer, the highweight at 122 pounds, will break from post 5 under Alex Cintron.

Bridget Moloney, a New York-bred daughter of Pollard’s Vision, is 3 for 3 in her career for trainer and part-owner Gary Gullo. Bridget Moloney debuted as an 11-1 shot in a maiden-claiming race, which she won by seven lengths.

“She really wasn’t working that fast; we paid $9,000 for her,” Gullo said in explaining why Bridget Moloney was entered for a tag in her debut. “She came out of the gate on the lead and was gone.”

In her most recent win, a first-level allowance against New York-breds on Dec. 29, Bridget Moloney broke slowly but rallied to win by 9 1/4 lengths.

“You don’t really know what kind of horse she is,” Gullo said. “She hasn’t run against any quality horses yet.”

C.C. Lopez, who won both the Correction and Toboggan last weekend, has the call on Bridget Moloney from post 3.

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin won the Ruthless Stakes, a race similar to this, last month with Mamdooha. That filly is sitting this one out, but the stable will be represented by Sustainable, a maiden winner over the inner track Dec. 31.

Maiden winners Go West Marie and Skye Saratoga complete the field.