Leader of 3-Year-Old Filly Division Will Take a Test

The leader of the 3-year-old filly division isn't running in the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) July 22 at Saratoga Race Course. Godolphin's Kentucky homebred Pretty Mischievous will instead shorten up and run in the seven-furlong $500,000 Test Stakes (G1) at the Spa on Aug. 5. Pretty Mischievous was not nominated to the Coaching Club American Oaks. "We like (the Test) for her," trainer Brandon Walsh said by phone from Kentucky on July 19. "She has so much natural speed. We have thought about shortening her up and this seems like a good opportunity. The Godolphin team was happy to go along with it. The Test is a very prestigious race." Running in the Test also gives Pretty Mischievous, a daughter of Into Mischief, more of a break. She has started four times this year and has three wins and a second. In her last start, on June 9, she won the Acorn Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park by a head over Dorth Vader. On the first Friday in May, she won the Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs by a neck at odds of 10-1. "We wanted to give her a little more time from the Acorn," Walsh said. "She has not missed a beat all spring." Pretty Mischievous has won six of eight career starts with a second and a third. In her second career start, an allowance at Churchill on Oct. 30 of last year, she won at seven furlongs. Walsh said he will wait and see what happens in the Test before looking at the next race, which could—or could not—be the $600,000 Alabama Stakes (G1) at 1 1/4 miles on Aug. 19. "Our aim right now is the Test." Walsh said. "Let's see how that goes."