La Verdad, Willet not quite done racing

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The multiple stakes-winning New York-bred mares La Verdad and Willet are expected to race once or twice more before heading to the breeding shed in a few months.

La Verdad, a 10-time stakes winner and earner of more than $1.5 million, has the $300,000 Barbara Fritchie Stakes on Feb. 13 at Laurel Park as her winter target, and it remains to be seen whether she runs once before or after that race. Last Saturday, she worked five furlongs in 1:00.86 over the Belmont Park training track, her first work since a sixth-place finish in the Grade 3 Fall Highweight on Nov. 26.

Willet, a five-time stakes winner, worked five furlongs in 1:01.80 over Aqueduct’s inner track last Saturday. She is expected to run Saturday in the $100,000 Interborough Stakes, which she won last year. Willet, 8, has won 10 of 28 starts and $826,900. She is coming off an allowance win over the inner track Dec. 11.

“She’s just doing so well,” said Jimmy Iselin, the trainer and co-owner of Willet. “She’s really flourishing at the moment. If she could be a double winner of the Interborough, that’s good for our ego.”

There have been six repeat winners of the Interborough, including Affectionately (1963-64), Ta Wee (1969-70), and, most recently, Nicole H, who won three straight from 2011-13.

Princess Violet, Room for Me, Jubilant Vision, and Dancing House are among those expected to run in the Interborough.