Rightly So needs to take it easier

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - As much as trainer Tony Dutrow likes his New York-bred filly Rightly So, he wishes she would have matured a little from age 3 to 4. Her go-go-go mentality could prove to her detriment when she returns from a three-month layoff in Sunday's $65,000 Broadway Stakes at Aqueduct.

Rightly So, who has won her last five races, is one of several of the eight New York-bred fillies and mares entered in the six-furlong Broadway who prefer to do their running on the front end. According to Dutrow, the three-month break did little in the way of making Rightly So more manageable.

"She's as aggressive today as she's ever been," Dutrow said Friday morning from south Florida. "I'm not liking it. I like the filly, but I'm not liking that she won't let it go. She's fresh, she's on go. I could be happier."

Rightly So lost her debut, but then came back to win two straight races over the inner track last winter by a combined 16 lengths. Ankle issues sidelined Rightly So for most of the summer, Dutrow said. Rightly So returned in a second-level New York-bred allowance, and though she came from off the pace that day, it was only because she broke slowly. She came back to win the Iroquois and the Luv Is Eternal, both against older fillies and mares, in front-running fashion.

Dutrow said he will leave it up to jockey Ramon Dominguez on how to manage Rightly So's speed on Sunday. Rightly So, the co-highweight at 123 pounds, breaks from post 2.

One of the primary speed horses is Lights Off Annie, who won this race in gate-to-wire fashion last year. She has the rail for her second start off a layoff, and first for trainer Mike Hushion. Not a Peep and Meese Rocks - who has won 4 of her last 5 - also have ample speed.

Trainer Pat Reynolds is hoping a duel develops to set things up for What a Pear, who finished second to a loose-on-the-lead Meese Rocks in a New York-bred stakes on Feb. 5.

"Hopefully, we'll be in striking distance, and if they come back a little bit and the old What a Pear shows up maybe I'll get to win another Broadway," said Reynolds, who won this race in 2003 with Shawklit Mint.

Sapphire Sky finished second and third behind Rightly So in two stakes last year. Sorority Sister completes the field.