Saturday, Aug. 26

2:23 p.m.—$700,000 Personal Ensign Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course

After a less-than-spectacular victory in the Delaware Handicap (G1), Songbird‘s connections are hoping she comes back fitter and ready to claim her fourth victory in the state of New York and third at Saratoga. Her main challenger appears to be last-out Fleur de Lis Handicap (G2) winner Forever Unbridled, a multiple grade 1 winner in her own right.

2:59 p.m.—$500,000 Ballerina Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course

Paulassilverlining, the pro-tem leader of the female sprint division, will put a four-race win streak on the line in the Ballerina. Since she was purchased privately by Juddmonte Farms earlier this year and transferred to the barn of Eclipse Award winner Chad Brown, Paulassilverlining has won each of her three starts this season, including victories in the Madison Stakes (G1) and Humana Distaff Stakes (G1).

3:35 p.m.—$500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course

Undefeated in four one-turn races, Practical Joke will try to extend that streak when he cuts back in distance for the Jerkens, formerly named the King’s Bishop Stakes. Practical Joke won the first three starts of his career, which included a pair of wins at Saratoga, a maiden debut victory going six furlongs followed by a score in the Hopeful Stakes (G1) at seven furlongs.

3:46 p.m.—$100,000 Philip H. Iselin Stakes at Monmouth Park (G3)

The class of the Iselin cast is Eagle, who has the ability to run down the speedy Conquest Big E on his best day. The son of Candy Ride  rallied from 11 lengths off the lead to win Indiana Downs’ Michael G. Schaefer Memorial Stakes July 15. Trained by Neil Howard, Eagle was in 10 successive graded tilts prior, and finished just a half-length shy of Bradester  in last summer’s Stephen Foster Handicap (G1).

4:12 p.m.—$600,000 Forego Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course

Looking to rebound from his last start in the Bing Crosby Stakes (G1) July 29, when he ducked in at the gap and lost rider Mike Smith, reigning champion sprinter Drefong will attempt to add another Saratoga grade 1 to his résumé. Last year he won the Ketel One King’s Bishop Stakes (G1) by 3 1/4 lengths.

4:49 p.m.—$1 million Sword Dancer Stakes (G1T) at Saratoga Race Course

The Niarchos Family’s Irish-bred Erupt will try to make 2017 his third consecutive year with a grade/group 1 victory. The 5-year-old son of Dubawi is one of seven entered for the Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the $4 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1T) Nov. 4 at Del Mar.

5:44 p.m.—$1.25 million Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course

With all three individual classic winners set to start, along with six other graded stakes victors in the field, the Travers could provide that long-awaited moment, when the balance of power among the 3-year-old males shifts decidedly in someone’s favor.

6:20 p.m.—$400,000 Ballston Spa Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course

Set to be offered as a broodmare prospect at this year’s Keeneland November breeding stock sale, Lady Eli will make one more racing appearance at the oval where she first threw down the gauntlet. Nearly three years to the day after her debut at Saratoga, Sheep Pond Partners’ 5-year-old mare will try and end her time at the Spa in the same fashion it began.

8:10 p.m.—$100,000 Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar

While the Travers will occupy much of the racing world’s attention Saturday, across the continent another group of 3-year-olds looking to make a bigger splash a couple races down the line will square off in the one-mile Shared Belief. Grade 1 winners Gormley and Klimt have top-class victories, but Don Alberto Stable and WinStar Farm’s Battle of Midway has the slight morning-line favoritism coming off a rough trip and sixth-place finish in the July 30 Betfair.com Haskell Invitational (G1).

9:10 p.m.—$200,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes (G2) at Del Mar

With the scratch of favored Danzing Candy, who sustained a career-ending injury during training Aug. 25 at Del Mar, the seven-furlong “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) has turned into a wide-open affair. The only horse in the field exiting a stakes win is Gary Barber’s Mr. Hinx, a 3-year-old Ministers Wild Cat  gelding who took the Real Good Deal Stakes for California-breds last time out July 28 at Del Mar.

Sunday, Aug. 27

4:47 p.m.—$125,000 Ontario Colleen Stakes (G3T) at Woodbine

Selene Stakes (G3) winner Grizzel, an Irish-bred daughter of Kodiac, will look to bounce back from a fifth-place finish on the road in the Belmont Oaks Invitational (G1T), in which she took a one-length lead with a quarter-mile to go but got passed late by some of the classiest turf fillies in North America.

7:40 p.m.—$100,000 Torrey Pines Stakes (G3) at Del Mar

After such a trying 11th-place finish in the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1), trainer Richard Mandella gave Paradise Woods a needed rest, and her training up to the Torrey Pines has allowed him to put her trip to the Bluegrass State behind him. “I’ll just throw out the Kentucky Oaks, because I still think she’s very good,” Mandella said of the record-setting Santa Anita Oaks (G1) winner.