Delaware Park: Singlet, Culotte cut back for Beautiful Day Stakes

Singlet and Culotte, each a two-time stakes winner and both cutting back in distance following unsuccessful experiments in routes, are the prime contenders in Thursday’s $50,000 Beautiful Day Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Delaware Park.

Early this season, racing on the inner track at Aqueduct, Singlet won back-to-back overnight stakes going six furlongs. Given nearly two months to prepare for her first start beyond six furlongs, Singlet raced well for the first seven furlongs of the Grade 3 Comely, a one-turn mile race on Aqueduct’s main track, before backing up badly in the final eighth-mile.

Singlet has prepped nicely for her return in the six-furlong Beautiful Day, working a half-mile in a bullet 47.40 seconds on May 19 and four furlongs in 48 flat, the second best of 38 workers, a week later. She is coupled with Mikey Likes It, whose bid for three wins in a row to begin her career ended when she finished a distant third in the Trevose at Parx Racing. Both fillies are trained by Tony Dutrow and partially owned by Michael Dubb.

Culotte, based in Kentucky with trainer Tom Amoss, won three of her first four starts at 2, including the Mountaineer Juvenile and the Opelousas at Evangeline Downs. She did not adapt well when asked to go two turns in the My Trusty Cat and Grade 3 Delta Downs Princess.

Although Culotte has been idle since November, Amoss is 10 for 26 (38 percent) with fillies and mares returning in sprints after a layoff of more than 180 days.

The field also includes Making Waves, who came from slightly off the pace to win a first-level allowance in her first start locally two weeks ago, and Defy Gravity, a stakes winner last November at Laurel Park who gets some class relief after failing to make an impact in the $100,000 Miss Preakness on the Black-Eyed Susan undercard at Pimlico.

Doe, first or second in 9 of 15 starts, makes her first start off a $40,000 claim in March by trainer Wayne Cole. As a 2-year-old, Doe was good enough to finish second against males in the Charles Town Juvenile and the Dover at Delaware.