Japan points to Jim Dandy

Japan, winner of the Easy Goer Stakes on the Belmont Stakes undercard, likely will make his next start Aug. 1 in the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, trainer Bill Mott said Friday.

Mott said he prefers the Jim Dandy to the Dwyer, a $500,000 one-turn-mile race July 4 at Belmont, due to the spacing on the calendar, and it gives him the opportunity to “go a little farther.” The Jim Dandy is run at 1 1/8 miles.

“He’s just a baby,” Mott said of Japan. “He should have gotten something out of it. It was a small field, but I thought he looked good doing it.”

Meanwhile, Mott said that My Miss Sophia, who won a second-level allowance race on the turf June 5, could make her next start July 25 in the Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga.

Mott said he was pleased but “wasn’t shocked by any means” with My Miss Sophia’s 4 1/2-length win in her turf debut. Mott had been impressed with the way My Miss Sophia breezed on the turf.

“You know the filly could run,” he said. “She just needed something to change up and get her career going again. She always had the ability to run.”

Mott said that Filimbi, who was a troubled second in the Grade 1 Just a Game, likely would get a freshening and point to a fall campaign.