Aqueduct: Singlet outgames rival in Dearly Precious

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Despite a pedigree that suggests she would prefer to run a distance of ground, Singlet continues to show her prowess sprinting.

Singlet won her third consecutive six-furlong race, outfinishing a stubborn Corderosa in the final three-sixteenths to take Saturday’s $75,000 Dearly Precious Stakes by a neck at Aqueduct. Corderosa, who appeared uncomfortable racing on the inside, finished second by 2 3/4 lengths over Lisa T. Well Kept, who dueled between horses down the backside, finished last. Marvelous Margaret scratched.

Singlet, owned by Michael Dubb, Larry Brafman, and Daniel Ryan, has now won 4 of 5 career starts.

Singlet is a daughter of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Real Quiet out of the Conquistador Cielo mare Taylor’s Choice. Still, it has been trainer Tony Dutrow’s experience that progeny of Real Quiet are better sprinting than routing, and Singlet is not an exception.

“The Real Quiets that I have had, they want to go shorter than longer,” Dutrow said by phone from Florida. “I was between this and the Busher, but I felt it would have been a mistake not to be in this race today.”

Singlet, under Cornelio Velasquez, broke on top, but then sat outside of Corderosa and Well Kept through a quarter-mile in 23.47 seconds and a half-mile in 47.15. Singlet and Corderosa, under Junior Alvarado hooked up at the three-sixteenths pole, but it was Singlet who prevailed, perhaps aided by being on the outside.

Singlet covered the six furlongs in 1:11.62 over a fast inner track and returned $5.20 as the 8-5 favorite.

“My filly, she broke on the lead, I had the best position, I stayed third and at the top of the stretch I asked her and I had a lot of horse,” Velasquez said. Corderosa, he said, “ran big too, but my filly was better.”

Alvarado said Corderosa “didn’t want to be inside, she was a little [timid]. She still was trying.”

Dutrow could elect to run Singlet back in the Grade 3, $150,000 Cicada at six furlongs on March 10 or wait to stretch her out to a mile in the Grade 3, $250,000 Comely Stakes on April 7.