Willet finds soft spot to kick season into gear

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Willet has already earned owner-trainer Jimmy Iselin and his partners more than a half-million dollars in her patiently managed career. But Willet, 6, has yet to win a graded stakes, and that will be Iselin’s major goal this season for his talented New York-bred, who returns to Saratoga as the likely favorite in a statebred allowance race for fillies and mares Wednesday.

Willet, as has been the case throughout her career, was given the winter and spring off. She has started just once this season, finishing a strong second behind La Verdad in the Dancin Renee Stakes at Belmont earlier this month. Iselin had the option to take on La Verdad again here Monday in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss Handicap but decided to opt for the softer spot.

Joel Rosario will ride Willet on Wednesday.

“This is the ideal race for us to see where she belongs the rest of the year, and it was also extremely important to me to be able to get Joel to ride her on Wednesday,” said Iselin. “I thought it wouldn’t be fair to feed her right to the wolves – La Verdad and the others in the Honorable Miss – in her first start up here.”

Willet, who finished second in the Grade 2 Go For Wand Handicap in 2012, has already displayed her fondness for the Saratoga strip. Never worse than second in four local appearances, she won the six-furlong Union Avenue here last summer.

“She’s a wonderful horse,” said Iselin. “She’s bigger and stronger than ever this year, and I thought her comeback race was excellent. She’s been lightly raced by design. She’s never had any problems, so although she’s a 6-year-old, she’s really more like a 4-year-old because of all the time off she’s had.”

Willet will face five other fillies and mares in Wednesday’s third race, including Risky Rachel, who beat her in the 2012 Union Avenue; the multiple stakes winner Galiana; and the red-hot Here’s Zealicious.