Rightly So Headlines Bed O'Roses

Rightly So will try to carry her speed seven furlongs when she faces seven other fillies and mares in Monday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Bed o’ Roses Handicap at Belmont Park.

Entering Monday’s race off a runner-up effort in her first start against open company – the Grade 2, 6½-furlong Vagrancy Handicap here at Belmont on May 29 – the 4-year-old New York-bred will negotiate an additional sixteenth of a mile in the Bed o’ Roses.

“She’s very effective at all distances,” trainer Anthony Dutrow said of Rightly So, who has won at distances ranging from six furlongs to 7½ furlongs. “I don’t know what her best distance is, but I do know she likes Belmont Park.”

Prior to the Vagrancy, Rightly So was unbeaten at Belmont, having won a six-furlong optional claimer in September and the Iroquois over seven furlongs on New York Showcase Day in October before capping her sophomore season with a victory in the Love Is Eternal at Aqueduct in November. The daughter of Read the Footnotes has raced twice so far in 2010, finishing third in the Broadway over the inner track in February and second by a nose in the Indistinctly on the Big A’s main track in March.

Hiked up in class for the Vagrancy, Rightly So set fast fractions of 21.85 and 44.50 before she gave way grudgingly in the stretch to finish a half-length behind Hour Glass.

Dutrow expects Rightly So, who is owned by Zayat Stables LLC, to be prominent early once again in the Bed o’ Roses.

“That’s her nature,” said Dutrow.

The 2-1 favorite on the morning line, Rightly So will break from post position 6 under Cornelio Velasquez and 114 pounds.

Mark Keller’s Qualia looks for her fourth consecutive victory as she tackles stakes competition for the first time in the Bed o’ Roses.

After overcoming trouble to win a six-furlong allowance at Gulfstream Park by a half-length in January, she returned one month later to score by 1¾ lengths in a one-mile optional claimer at that venue. Shortened up to 6½ furlongs most recently in an optional claimer at Belmont on May 28, she pressed the pace and opened up in the stretch to prevail by 4¾ lengths.

“I think middle distance might be her best,” trainer Robert Ribaudo said. “We’re hoping seven furlongs will be optimum. When she won the one-mile race, it wasn’t a performance where she drew off and you said ‘Wow!’”

Qualia, the 5-2 second choice on the morning line, was assigned 115 pounds and drew post position 1. Rajiv Maragh, who has ridden the 4-year-old in all five of her previous starts, retains the mount.

Devil by Design, owned by Eurowest Bloodstock, will face black-type competition for the first time since finishing a distant second behind eventual Grade 2 Chilukki winner Malibu Prayer in an overnight stakes at Belmont last September. After drawing off to win a Churchill Downs allowance by 5¾ lengths in November, she was freshened over the winter, and returned to take an optional claimer by 1¾ lengths under the Twin Spires on May 21 in her lone start in 2010.

“We just wanted to give her a little time off,” said Leana Willaford, assistant to trainer Bill Mott. “Obviously, she ran very well in her comeback race.”

Devil by Design, the 4-1 third choice, will break from post position 2 under 114 pounds with Kent Desormeaux aboard.

Amazing switches over to the main track in the Bed o’ Roses, which will be her first start for owner Paul Pompa, Jr. and trainer Richard Dutrow, Jr. A two-time stakes winner at Calder Race Course in Florida, she was most recently seen finishing last of six against statebreds in the Florida Thoroughbred Charities Stakes on the turf at Gulfstream on April 24.

Both Lady Alexander and McVictory enter the Bed o’ Roses off a pair of solid efforts in stakes at Monmouth Park. Lady Alexander picked up her fourth black-type victory when she won the six-furlong Red Cross on the Jersey Shore on June 5, while McVictory finished second after setting the pace in the Monmouth Beach over one mile, 70 yards on May 30.

My Dinah and Nicksappealinglady complete the field.

The field for the Grade 3, $150,000 Bed o’ Roses Handicap: