[bc_video_id:306369:]ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown has won two of the past five runnings of the Grade 3 Miss Grillo Stakes at Belmont Park, with those horses going on to do well in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Brown will be hoping that trend continues Sunday, when he sends out the uncoupled entry of Granny Mc’s Kitten and Testa Rossi in the $200,000 Miss Grillo, which offers a fees-paid berth to the $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita as a Win and You’re In Breeders’ Cup Challenge race.

[bc_video_id:306367:]ELMONT, N.Y. – Last year, trainer Chad Brown finished second and third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf with Noble Tune and Balance the Books, respectively.

[bc_video_id:306400:]Even though Sunday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Bourbon Stakes on the Keeneland grass drew 12 2-year-olds plus an also-eligible runner, the betting public is likely to view it as simply a two-horse race.

Those two horses: Bashart, twice a winner at Saratoga on grass, including in the Grade 2 With Anticipation on Aug. 29, and Boji Moon, an Iowa-bred who has proven untouchable in three races, including the Kentucky Downs Juvenile.

[bc_video_id:306303:]ARCADIA, Calif. – Not everyone shares the opinion Goldencents is a slam-dunk cinch Saturday, when he races six furlongs in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship.

“We didn’t scare anyone off,” trainer Doug O’Neill said.

Eight were entered and four have something Goldencents lacks – victory in a graded sprint. Grade 1 sprint winners Points Offthebench, Centralinteligence, and Trinniberg are foes, and also entered in the Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint is Grade 3 winner Roman Threat.

[bc_video_id:306289:]Last October Mike Maker won two Grade 1 races at separate tracks a mere 24 minutes apart, first winning the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland with Joha and then the Jamaica Handicap at Belmont with longshot King David.

A year later, he has a shot at the same Grade 1 quick-turnaround double, starting morning-line favorite Admiral Kitten in the Jamaica at 4:40 Eastern and 5-1 shot General Jack in the Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity at 4:55.

ELMONT, N.Y. – It is the question trainer Leah Gyarmati has been asked most in the month since Sweet Reason splashed her way to a pair of victories in the slop at Saratoga, including the Grade 1 Spinaway.

It is the question handicappers will grapple with when determining on whom to wager in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park.

How will Sweet Reason perform when she races over a fast track?

[bc_video_id:306265:]LEXINGTON, Ky. – Charlie LoPresti sounds like a broken record when asked to talk about Wise Dan. How could he not? Wise Dan just keeps winning and impressing and, according to LoPresti, thriving all the while.

The only new verse is the one about how many horsemen are willing to try Wise Dan when the 2012 Horse of the Year goes for a repeat Saturday in the richest race of the Keeneland fall meet, the $750,000 Shadwell Turf Mile.

Funny, but LoPresti is one of them.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Thinking about the potential of Strong Mandate keeps trainer D. Wayne Lukas up at night. It probably has created some restless nights for the trainers who will send horses out against him in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park.

Lukas has trained five winners of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile – three of whom have gone on to be named champion 2-year-old – and he ranks Strong Mandate right up there with any of them.

“I don’t want to say he’s the best ever, but he could be,” Lukas said Thursday morning.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The last time Keeneland hosted a Grade 3 stakes for male turf sprinters, the first five finishers were separated by less than a half-length.

ELMONT, N.Y. – “Absolutely ecstatic.”

That’s how trainer D. Wayne Lukas said he was feeling Wednesday after Strong Mandate visited Belmont’s main track for the first time in preparation for Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes.

Strong Mandate, the 9 3/4-length winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga on Sept. 2, arrived at Belmont from Churchill on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he drew post 7 in a field of nine entered for the Champagne, a one-turn, one-mile race that offers a fees-paid berth to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.