Belmont: Alaura Michele heads field of 10 fillies for Miss Grillo

Alaura Michele, winner of the P.G. Johnson Stakes at Saratoga on Aug 31, heads a field of 10 entered in the Grade 3, $100,000 Miss Grillo for 2-year-old fillies Sunday at Belmont Park.

Alaura Michele is 2 for 2 on turf. She went gate to wire going six furlongs before showing the ability to rate when rallying from next-to-last to win the P.G. Johnson by 2 1/4 lengths.

Alaura Michele did get sick after the P.G. Johnson, according to trainer, Bill Mott, but she worked a solid five furlongs in 1:00.67 Wednesday over the Oklahoma turf course at Saratoga.

Sweet Cat overcame post 11 to win a 5 1/2-furlong maiden race at Saratoga on Sept. 1. As a daughter of Kitten’s Joy, Sweet Cat figures to be able to stretch out in distance, but will have to do so from post 10 on Sunday.

“We felt like she would handle the stretch out, we were focused on getting her maiden broken, the 5 1/2-furlong race timing-wise came up right for her,’’ trainer Todd Pletcher said. “She gives us the impression she’ll handle the stretch out. I’m not sure how she’ll handle soft ground, but we’ll see what the weather does here the next couple of days.’’

Bourbonstreetgirl, third in the P.G. Johnson; Tanglewood Tale, and Skip Along Band look to be the other top contenders.