Aqueduct: Sweet Reason hard to gauge going into Gazelle
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – What’s in a number? We will find out when Sweet Reason returns to stakes competition in Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct.
Last year’s renewal of the 1 1/8-mile race is a tough act to follow, as one-two finishers Close Hatches and Princess of Sylmar wound up Eclipse Award finalists.
The 119th Gazelle is race 9 and the second leg of an all-stakes pick four with a $500,000 guaranteed pool. It also begins a standard pick four on the day’s last four races.
Based on her body of work at age 2, topped by a big win in the Spinaway, Sweet Reason is ostensibly the class of the field. However, handicappers must decide what to make of her seasonal debut on March 7, an allowance win over four nondescript opponents that received a Beyer Speed Figure of 58.
That race unfolded through slow fractions, but the last quarter-mile was run in a sharp 23.52 seconds, and Sweet Reason, who was floated wide into the lane, did not appear fully extended to prevail by a half-length under Irad Ortiz Jr.[bc_video_id:320320:]
“If she had got a 58 and not won, it would have been a problem,” trainer Leah Gyarmati said. “But he never touched her with the stick. He didn’t have to. I think she’s moving along nicely. I need to see her in there against top 3-year-old fillies. I have no reason to believe she is any less than she was [last year].”
While Sweet Reason is the 8-5 morning-line favorite, there will be ample support for Got Lucky and My Miss Sophia, two upwardly mobile fillies who have shipped up from Palm Meadows for trainer Todd Pletcher. The Gazelle, oddly enough, is one of the few prizes to have escaped the six-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Pletcher.
Got Lucky, beaten a neck in the Demoiselle as a maiden last fall, comes off a distant runner-up finish to Untapable in the Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds.
“We ran into what appears to be the Kentucky Oaks favorite and probably got a little farther back than we needed, but I thought she ran on well to be second,” Pletcher said.
The lightly raced My Miss Sophia is light on experience, but the last-out maiden winner could wind up on the lead in this short field.
“We’re kind of making a big jump with her. … but it’s also a pretty similar pattern to what In Tune and Constitution just did,” said Pletcher, referring to his Gulfstream Oaks and Florida Derby winners last week. “It’s a calculated risk. She’ll be very prominent.”
Bird Maker, a Marylou Whitney homebred who ran second in the Golden Road last fall for trainer Nick Zito, adds blinkers after a wide trip in an allowance race while chasing In Tune.
Vero Amore and Wraith complete the lineup.