Rightly So Completes NY-bred Graded Stakes Hat Trick Winning G3 Bed o’ Roses

by Sarah Mace

After Haynesfield’s victory in the Grade 2 Suburban on Saturday and Franny Freud’s triumph in the Grade 1 Prioress on Sunday, what better way to wrap up the Fourth of July weekend than by a New York-bred sweep of the holiday graded stakes at Belmont Park with a Grade 3 win on Monday?  Zayat Stables’ Rightly So answered the call, capturing the seven-furlong $150,000 Grade 3 Bed o’ Roses Handicap and besting a field of seven other fillies and mares by a brave head to get her first graded stakes win.

Entering the Bed o’ Roses on the heels of a game and very close runner-up finish in the 6½-furlong Grade 2 Vagrancy Handicap at Belmont on May 29, the four-year-old daughter of Read the Footnotes had already shown an affinity for Big Sandy, racking up two front-running wins and a second in her three Belmont Park starts. The distance of the Bed o’ Roses was also well within range for the Anthony Dutrow-trainee, who had career wins from 6 furlongs to a mile to her credit. Making her fourth start of 2010, front-running Rightly So had also racked up very close third and second place finishes, respectively, in two state-bred stakes this year (the Broadway in February and Indistinctly in March, both run at Aqueduct over off tracks) in addition to the Vagrancy placing.

Morning-line favorite, but second choice in the field of eight by post-time, Rightly So broke well from post six under Cornelio Velasquez, who had the call for the second consecutive time. Making her way to the front and the rail by the first sixteenth, Rightly So set torrid fractions (on a torrid day). The quarter went in 22.21 and the half in 44.99. Showing little give, however, after setting such a pace, the brave filly had an answer for favorite Qualia, who tracked to her outside and made a bid in the stretch. Hanging on by tooth and nail and full of heart, Rightly So hit the wire a head-bob in front of her threatening rival, stopping the clock at 1:22.44 after three-quarters that went in 1:09.22, With the Grade 3 score, Rightly So improved her never-off-the-board record to 6-3-1 from 10 starts, and boosted her lifetime earnings to $330,050.

After the race, Elizabeth Currey, assistant to trainer Tony Dutrow said, “She’s unbelievable – there’s no stopping her. She’s all racehorse.” Jockey Cornelio Velasquez expanded on the thought: “She always runs big, but today she wanted to go fast . . . I had a lot of horse at the top of the stretch and she finished well.” Her next start, according to Dutrow, could be the seven-furlong Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga on August 28.

New York-breds have now won the Bed ‘o Roses seven times beginning with Nany (1985), and continuing with Chaldea (1986), Lady D’Accord (1992-93), Ruby Rubles (2000), and Magnolia Jackson (2006). In response to the New York-bred sweep of Belmont’s graded stakes features over the Fourth of July holiday, Executive Director of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Jeffrey Cannizzo said, “This holiday weekend demonstrated where New York-breds are today – quality pedigrees, graded performances.” Both Franny Freud (Freud) and Rightly So (Read the Footnotes) are sired by New York stallions.

Bred by Sequel 2003 and foaled at Sequel Stallions NY, Rightly So is one of two winners from two foals to start out of the unraced Out of Place mare Fit Right In, purchased by JMJ Racing at the New York October Mixed Sale in 2006 for $3,000. Fit Right In has an unnamed yearling by Closing Argument and was bred back last year to Rightly So’s sire Read the Footnotes, who stands for Sequel Stallions[2] at Keane Stud[3].

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2010/07/05/rightly-so-bed-roses/

---