Willet tries Go for Wand a third time

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Still seeking her first graded stakes victory, the ultra-consistent 6-year-old New York-bred mare Willet will start in the Grade 3, $300,000 Go for Wand Handicap for a third consecutive year when that one-turn, one-mile race is run here Friday.

Willet, a four-time restricted stakes winner, was beaten a head by Neffertini in the 2012 Go for Wand. Last year, she finished fourth in the Go for Wand, just one of two times in her 20-race career that she finished out of the money.

Jimmy Iselin, the part-owner and trainer of Willet, blamed himself for that performance, saying he worked the mare too fast too close to the race.

Willet is 1 for 5 this year and is coming off a second-place finish behind La Verdad in the Iroquois Stakes.

“She’s really in great, great shape,” Iselin said before noting that legendary trainer “Jimmy Jones taught me one thing: Lose the little ones, and win the big ones.”

Dylan Davis, aboard for Willet’s one-length loss behind Artemis Agrotera and La Verdad in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom, will ride Willet from post 5.

The Go for Wand drew a 12-horse field led by fellow New York-bred 3-year-old Princess Violet, multiple graded stakes winner Sweet Whiskey, and recent runaway stakes winner Classic Point.