SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Sierra Leone, runner-up in the Kentucky Derby and third as the favorite in the Belmont Stakes, continued preparations for the second half of his 3-year-old campaign Sunday by working a sharp half-mile in 48.74 seconds over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga. Working by himself for the third straight week, Sierra Leone went his opening quarter in 25.31 seconds and his final quarter in 23.43 while continuing out five furlongs in 1:01.92, and six furlongs in 1:14.59. Sierra Leone is pointing to the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy here on July 27. “Excellent,” trainer Chad Brown said of the work. “Very much more of the same from his previous two works. He’s in a nice rhythm breezing solo and he’s just moving great and galloping out super. I’m very pleased with him.” Sierra Leone, who earlier in the year won the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes and the Grade 2 Risen Star, was one of 19 3-year-olds nominated to the Jim Dandy, the local steppingstone to the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes on August 24. With a glut of 3-year-old races on the horizon - including Friday’s Curlin Stakes here and Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park - the Jim Dandy field is in flux and figures to be small. The other confirmed starters are Ohio Derby first- and second-place finishers Batten Down and Gould’s Gold. Preakness winner Seize the Grey has been mentioned by D. Wayne Lukas as a possible starter for the Jim Dandy. Fierceness, the Grade 1 Florida Derby winner and 15th-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, is possible, though he is going to be entered Wednesday in Saturday’s Haskell. Trainer Todd Pletcher and Mike Repole also have Belmont Stakes runner-up Mindframe for the Haskell. Society Man, winner of the Matt Winn Stakes for trainer Danny Gargan, is also possible for the Jim Dandy. Brown mulls plans for Diana runners Trainer Chad Brown said it was too early to have a firm plan for Diana Stakes winner Whitebeam, but he did say that she and Diana third- and ninth-place finishers Gina Romantica and Chili Flag would likely be nominated to the Grade 1, $500,000 Fourstardave here on Aug. 10. A start there would mean taking on males. Brown said the one-mile distance and the Grade 1 status of the Fourstardave at least makes that race something to think about pending the complexion of the field. Last year, Whitebeam won the Diana and didn’t run again until the Grade 1 First Lady at Keeneland with no race in between. She finished fourth in the First Lady to Gina Romantica, who finished third in Saturday’s Diana. Gina Romantica then finished fourth, beaten one length by Master of The Seas in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Mile. Master of The Seas is pointing to the Fourstardave. Whitebeam won Saturday’s Grade 1 Diana in front-running fashion, holding off Moira by three-quarters of a length. By winning her second straight Diana she gave Brown his ninth victory in the race. The mile has proven to be the best distance for Chili Flag, who had won three consecutive graded stakes at that distance before the Diana, at 1 1/8 miles. The next turf stakes at a middle turf distance for fillies and mares here is the Grade 2, $300,000 Ballston Spa Stakes going 1 1/16 miles on Aug. 22. Brown said after the Diana that he wouldn’t want to drop Whitebeam into a Grade 2, but said others from the Diana could be considered for that race. Whitebeam earned a career-best 101 Beyer Speed Figure for her front-running Diana score. Brown also sent out Coppice (5th) and Fluffy Socks (8th) in the Diana. “I’m going to have to get them back on track before I decide who’s going where,” Brown said. Brown did say that Carl Spackler, who earlier on Saturday’s card won the Grade 3 Kelso Stakes, would be pointed to the Fourstardave. Carl Spackler beat Talk of the Nation by a half-length to win the Kelso in a bounce-back effort after a fifth-place finish as the favorite in the Grade 3 Poker here last month. “In hindsight, he might have bounced a bit from the race at Churchill, he had a challenging trip,” Brown said. “He was parked wide off a layoff, but he showed enough heart to get to the wire, but it might have took a little more out of him than I thought.” Moira: Beverly D or Canadian could be next Moira, the runner-up in Saturday’s Grade 1 Diana, was scheduled to ship back to Woodbine on Sunday night, but she may be taking another road trip next month. Trainer Kevin Attard said the Grade 2, $500,000 Beverly D. at Colonial Downs on Aug. 10 could be next  for Moira, or he could keep her home for the Grade 2, $200,000 Canadian at Woodbine the same day. Moira made a good run to get second in the Diana, her first start since she finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf last November. Attard said the slow pace that Whitebeam was able to get away with compromised his mare’s chances. “Obviously, extremely proud of her, hard to close into that kind of pace,” Attard said. “My filly closed as well as she could and came out of it in really good order.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.