Can Sweet Reason go the distance in Cotillion?

ELMONT, N.Y. – Sweet Reason was one of the top 2-year-old fillies in the nation last year. She is one of the top 3-year-old fillies now. But questions persist concerning possible distance limitations.

On Saturday at Parx Racing, Sweet Reason will be asked to go 1 1/16 miles around two turns as part of a deep field in the Grade 1 Cotillion. The $1 million race will include division leader Untapable.

While Sweet Reason is 5 for 8 in her career and has three Grade 1 wins, two of her losses have come in two-turn races beyond a mile. Her most impressive victories are all around one turn: the seven-furlong Test, one-mile Acorn, and seven-furlong Spinaway.

Distance limitations? Maybe. But then again, Sweet Reason may be on the verge of proving otherwise this weekend.

On Monday morning at Belmont Park, trainer Leah Gyarmati shared her thoughts.

“The two turns are a question mark,” Gyarmati said. “I’m curious to see how she does also. She’s run well at two turns before, just not as well as the others as of right now. If two turns are not her game, we have an option. She loves that seven-eighths.”

The seven-eighths Gyarmati referred to is the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 1. If Sweet Reason passes her Cotillion test, she could instead be pointed to another Breeders’ Cup race, the $2 million Distaff at 1 1/8 miles on Oct. 31.

There are reasons to believe Sweet Reason may actually want to go longer. She flew home in the Test to win the seven-furlong race by a length. In the Acorn, she showed last from the gate, awaited room nearing the stretch, and then finished up nicely to win at a mile.

Also, in the two-turn races in which she was beaten, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita and the Grade 2 Gazelle at Aqueduct this spring, there were extenuating circumstances.

In the Juvenile Fillies, Sweet Reason finished fourth, beaten two lengths, after lagging far back early. She made a big move on the far turn and into the stretch of the 1 1/16-mile race and then flattened out a bit late.

“There were a lot of little things before the Breeders’ Cup last year,” Gyarmati said. “She colicked two days before. It wasn’t bad, but it happened. The track was speed-favoring, too. Not as much as the first day, but ...”

Sweet Reason began her 3-year-old season with a one-mile optional-claiming victory around two turns over the inner track at Aqueduct. She won by a half-length as the 2-5 favorite but was not overpowering and was given a career-low Beyer Speed Figure of 72.

In her next start, she finished third in the Gazelle going 1 1/8 miles at Aqueduct.

“For whatever reason, her works were just ordinary over the winter,” Gyarmati said. “Then it was like flipping a switch. She turned a corner, and she just started to work really well.”

She is unbeaten in two starts since, the Acorn and Test.

Gyarmati has worked Sweet Reason four times since the Aug. 2 Test, including a seven-furlong move last Sunday around two turns on the Belmont training track in company with Noble Moon, whom Gyarmati will run in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby.

Sweet Reason proved best in the work and appears ready to answer a nagging question or two Saturday.