Willet passing Bed o' Roses for Dancin Renee

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Jimmy Iselin brought Willet back off a seven-month layoff in last year’s Grade 3 Bed o’ Roses Handicap, and she finished last. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.

So, despite the fact that Willet worked a very strong six furlongs at Aqueduct, Iselin decided to skip Saturday’s $150,000 Bed o’ Roses and instead will wait for the $100,000 Dancin Renee Stakes for New York-breds on July 3.

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Iselin, a part-owner of the mare, thought about retiring Willet after her 5 1/4-length victory in the Touch of Love Stakes last Dec. 6 but said the 6-year-old multiple-stakes-winning mare “is part our family, beautiful, sound, and healthy.”

“Our real goal would be to win a graded stakes this year, which she hasn’t done yet,” he said.

Willet, a daughter of Jump Start, has won four restricted stakes and was beaten a neck in the Grade 2 Go for Wand in 2012.