Miss Brazil auditions for Acorn Stakes in Friday allowance

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Tony Dutrow will be on a fact-finding mission of sorts Friday when he runs the 3-year-old filly Miss Brazil against older fillies and mares in a second-level allowance race at Belmont Park.

Dutrow is hoping to use the 6 1/2-furlong race as a stepping-stone to either the Grade 1 Acorn going a mile on June 5 or the $150,000 Jersey Girl Stakes going six furlongs on June 6. Both races are at Belmont.

“What I learn in the two-other-than – first time over the Belmont surface – will influence the decision on the Acorn or the Jersey Girl,” Dutrow said. “If she excites me, then I’m keeping the door open on the Acorn. I do think that a mile around one turn is within Miss Brazil’s strong suit.”

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Miss Brazil, a daughter of Palace Malice, is coming off a second-place finish behind Search Results in the Busher Invitational going a one-turn mile on March 6 at Aqueduct. Search Results came back to win the Grade 3 Gazelle and will be among the top contenders in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on April 30 at Churchill Downs.

Dutrow said there were no sprint stakes options in New York between the Busher and the first weekend in June, and he wasn’t keen on shipping Miss Brazil out of town. He is happy to have this allowance race go, even if it means taking on older horses.

Miss Brazil, who in February won a three-horse Ruthless Stakes, has never raced at Belmont. She has, however, fired two bullet works since the main track opened three weeks ago.

“You can see how she’s trained over the main track lately,” Dutrow said. “I have every indication that she’s fine.”

Miss Brazil will break from the rail and has Irad Ortiz Jr. in the irons for the first time.

The field includes Slam Dunk, fourth in the Hurricane Bertie on March 20 at Gulfstream; Prairie Fire, a six-time-winning New York-bred; Truth Hurts, making her first start since an eighth-place finish in last October’s Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan; and Invaluable, who looks to rebound off a last-place finish in this condition April 1 at Aqueduct.