Sweet Reason eyes Comely

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sweet Reason, a multiple Grade 1 winner who was eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint last time out, may not be done with her 3-year-old season just yet.

Trainer Leah Gyarmati said Monday that she is considering running Sweet Reason in the Grade 3, $400,000 Comely Stakes for 3-year-old fillies here Nov. 29.

Gyarmati said she pulled some blood on Sweet Reason on Monday and wanted to see how it came back before making any firm plans. However, Sweet Reason galloped Monday morning over the Belmont training track as though the Filly and Mare Sprint hardly took anything out of her.

In the Breeders’ Cup, Sweet Reason was a bit keener than usual after breaking from the rail, and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. never was able to get her off the inside.

“Irad said she was sharper than normal when she left the gate,” Gyarmati said. “She was probably closer than she should have been, and we didn’t want to be on the inside.”

Sweet Reason’s training schedule leading into the Filly and Mare Sprint may have been compromised by missing some time to an eye injury she suffered when second to Untapable in the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion at Parx.

Though all three of Sweet Reason’s Grade 1 wins – the Spinaway, Acorn, and Test – have come in one-turn races, Gyarmati said her effort in the 1 1/16-mile Cotillion proved she could handle two turns. The Comely is run at 1 1/8 miles around two turns over Aqueduct’s main track.

Among those being considered for the Comely are Dame Dorothy and Catch My Drift, the one-two finishers from the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm Handicap at Belmont on Oct. 26, and Penwith, beaten a neck in last year’s Grade 2 Demoiselle over this track.

Dame Dorothy worked four furlongs Sunday in 48.55 seconds over the Belmont training track.

◗ Gyarmati also said that Wonder Gal, third in the Juvenile Fillies, has been turned out at Patty Hogan’s farm in central New Jersey.