Acorn goes deeper than the favorite

ELMONT, N.Y. – If you go by the morning line, Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Acorn Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Belmont Park is a one-horse race. My Miss Sophia, the winner of the Grade 2 Gazelle and the runner-up to division leader Untapable in the Kentucky Oaks, was made the 6-5 morning-line favorite in a field of 13 entered for the one-turn, one-mile race.

But the Acorn has the look and feel of being more competitive than that. The field includes three Grade 1 winners – Artemis Agrotera, Fashion Plate, and Sweet Reason – Grade 3 winners Fiftyshadesofgold and Sweet Whiskey as well as solid stakes performers House Rules and Unbridled Forever.

Fiftyshadesofgold, 8-1 on the line, has won 4 of 6 starts and is coming off a half-length victory in the Grade 3 Eight Belles at Churchill on Oaks Day. That race was at seven furlongs.

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“I would think a one-turn mile would suit me fine,” said trainer Bret Calhoun, who has never before started a horse at Belmont. “I think that will help her. We had to rush her a little bit in that race. She’s a big filly, and she would prefer to settle and make a run. [The mile] should give us a little more opportunity to do that.”

Mike Smith, who won the Acorn four times when he rode here regularly in the 1990s, has the call on Fiftyshadesofgold from post 3.

In her second career start, My Miss Sophia won a one-turn, one-mile maiden race by 11 lengths. Then she won the Gazelle when allowed to dictate a soft pace. In the Kentucky Oaks, she was simply second-best, 4 1/2 lengths behind Untapable while six lengths clear of the rest of the field.

“She ran a race good enough to win a lot of Kentucky Oaks,” said Todd Pletcher, a two-time Acorn winner and the trainer of My Miss Sophia and Sweet Whiskey. “She had the misfortune of being born the same year as Untapable, but she was six lengths clear of third. We hope that speaks of her quality and she continues to perform the way she has.”

Fashion Plate won the Las Virgenes and Santa Anita Oaks – both Grade 1 races – before finishing last in the Kentucky Oaks when she acted up at the gate and broke last. She breaks from the rail Saturday and figures to use her speed under Gary Stevens.

Artemis Agrotera, the Frizette winner going a mile over this track last fall, makes her 3-year-old debut in this spot. Trainer Mike Hushion said, “I don’t think I can get her any fitter or any better.”

Sweet Reason, the Grade 1 Spinaway winner trained by Leah Gyarmati, was second in the Frizette last year. She is back to a one-turn race and should get an ideal pace scenario for her closing run.
House Rules, trained by Allen Jerkens, also cuts back to a one-turn race after runner-up finishes in the Davona Dale and Gulfstream Oaks, Grade 2 races run around two turns during the winter.