ELMONT, N.Y. – Sweet Reason, the half-length winner of Saturday’s Grade 1 Acorn, most likely will make her next start in the Grade 1, $500,000 Test Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 2, trainer Leah Gyarmati said Sunday.

The Test is run at seven furlongs. Last year at 2, Sweet Reason won the Grade 1 Spinaway, also a seven-furlong race. The last filly to win both races was Numbered Account (1971-72).

The Test comes eight weeks after the Acorn. Sweet Reason, owing to some internal issues, had nine weeks between her third-place finish in the Gazelle and the Acorn.

ELMONT, N.Y. – After Palace Malice won the Belmont Stakes last year, he went to Saratoga and ran twice, winning the Jim Dandy Stakes and finishing a troubled fourth, beaten less than a length, in the Travers Stakes.

After winning the Grade 1 Met Mile on Saturday for his fourth victory in as many starts this year, Palace Malice will again be pointed to Saratoga, where he will run next in the $1.5 million Whitney Invitational on Aug. 2.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Close Hatches and Princess of Sylmar, separated by a head in Saturday’s Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park, most likely will meet again in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga on Aug. 22, but how each filly gets to that race remains in question.

ARCADIA, Calif.- Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s 3-year-old division came alive on Saturday.

After a largely disappointing first five months of the year by his standards, Baffert’s 3-year-olds won stakes at Belmont Park and Santa Anita. Bayern was a convincing winner of Saturday’s $500,000 Woody Stephens Stakes over seven furlongs at Belmont. Six hours later, Can the Man, unraced since October, won the $100,000 Affirmed Stakes over 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita.

Kaleem Shah owns both Bayern and Can the Man.

Halo Dolly, a 6-year-old Popular mare, ran second in a Golden Gate Fields allowance race Saturday as she passed the $1 million mark in earnings.
She ran second as the favorite to Sing and Tell in the 1 1/16-mile allowance race, earning $9,100 to surpass the $1 million milestone.

The multiple-stakes-winning mare, who is at her best on the turf, has 18 career victories, six seconds, and six thirds while earning $1,003,416. She has won 10 stakes, including the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon, the Grade 3 Wilshire, and the Solana Beach three times.

ELMONT, N.Y. – After a light amount of advance wagering reported Friday by the New York Racing Association, California Chrome is the heavy favorite for the 146th Belmont Stakes on Saturday.

With $64,458 in the win pool, most of it ontrack, California Chrome is the 1-2 choice, followed by Commanding Curve (6-1), Wicked Strong (8-1), Ride On Curlin (11-1), and Tonalist (13-1).

Happy My Way, the dominant winner of the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint Handicap on Preakness Day, most likely will make his next start in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga on Aug. 2, trainer Joe Orseno said Friday.

Orseno said he wanted to run in the Smile Sprint in south Florida, but it is uncertain whether that race will be run as a result of a pending dates agreement between Gulfstream Park and Calder. The Smile Sprint typically had been part of the Summit of Speed card at Calder but could be moved to Gulfstream and run for a significantly lower purse.

Revolutionary, the Pimlico Special winner, worked four furlongs in 48.50 seconds Friday over the Belmont Park training track as he prepares for a start in next Saturday’s Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs.

Revolutionary worked in company with the 5-year-old Band of Joy, a three-time winner.

“He’s a pretty laid-back horse. We generally work him in company,” trainer Todd Pletcher said.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Regardless of how Goldencents fares in Saturday’s Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park, his connections won’t be in a rush to get back to California.

On Sunday, owner Glenn Sorgenstein and trainer Doug O’Neill will be represented in two allowance races on Belmont Park’s nine-race card.

In the sixth, they send out the 3-year-old colt Sammy Mandeville in a $77,000, one-mile allowance on turf. In the seventh, they send out the 3-year-old filly Suzy Malibu in a $77,000 first-level allowance going six furlongs on dirt.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The horses were loading into the gate for the final race Thursday, with Joe Johnson aboard favored Silver Antelope and shooting for his 1,000th victory. Little did he know he had to overcome a jinx to reach his milestone.

John Asher, vice president of racing communications for Churchill Downs, was watching the race in the press box, already holding signage that congratulated Johnson on his 1,000th win – which is the bad-karma equivalent to an owner watching a race from the winner’s circle.