Arlington Million day: Attard sends Moira to Beverly D.

New Kent, Va.

Colonial Downs was able to call check in this week’s chess game of cross-entered horses when trainer Kevin Attard said Friday he would ship 2022 Canada champion Moira to Sunday’s Grade 2 Beverly D. Stakes.

“Hopefully, it’s the right decision,” Attard said by phone from Toronto, where Moira was led into a horse trailer Friday morning for a 600-mile drive that should get her to Virginia by about sunset.

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The 5-year-old Ghostzapper mare owned by Lanni Bloodstock, Madaket Stables and SF Racing had been entered in both the 1 3/16-mile, $500,000 Beverly D. and in Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile, US$145,681 Canadian Stakes (G2), which she won last year at Woodbine.

Attard watched how much rain was falling this week at each track as he pondered what became a fork in the road.

“Obviously the weather is playing a vital role in everything, right?” Attard said. “From the information I’m trying to gather, it seems that they (Colonial Downs) aren’t going to get as much rain as anticipated. I’m just hoping with the extra day of good weather on Saturday that it might help the turf course out a little bit as well. We’re getting some rain here in Toronto right now, so it’s kind of a pick-your-poison type of thing.”

Moira, the 9-5 morning-line favorite in the field of six fillies and mares, was one of the Beverly D.’s three would-be starters who also were entered in the Canadian. Libban, the 7-2 third choice, is at Colonial and will join her Sunday.

“She’s been great,” said Anastasia Zemtsov, who is looking after Libban and Arlington Million (G1) entrant General Ledger on behalf of trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. “She shipped in well. She’s looking around. She’s taking it all in well.”

Mission of Joy, who is 6-1 in the program, is a whole nuther matter.

“I would love not to run against Moira,” Mission of Joy’s trainer Graham Motion said, adding later Friday, “We are on the fence. Will decide tomorrow (Saturday).”

Motion also entered Five Towns in the Canadian with the plan to put jockey Frankie Dettori on whomever he decided to start Saturday at Woodbine.

With rain forecast Friday from Canada to the Mid-Atlantic, connections were wrestling with weather dilemmas that led to cross-entries of five horses at Colonial and either Woodbine or Saratoga. In the cases of Moira, Libban and Mission of Joy, their trainers took advantage of the 24-hour postponement of the Arlington Million card from Saturday to Sunday.

“I could probably get a degree in meteorology right now in the sense of following all these websites and trying to decipher what’s happening,” Attard said.

Moira would prefer firmer ground. She got it at Saratoga last month when she closed to finish second, losing by only three-quarters of a length to Whitebeam in the 1 1/8-mile Diana (G1).

“I thought she ran a great race,” Attard said. “Obviously she was coming off an eight-month layoff. ... (A slow) pace kind of compromised our chances. Chad Brown’s filly (Whitebeam) got to the front and dictated the race, and then we closed the best of the rest.”

Attard insisted the potential for firmer ground was more important than a bigger purse in his decision to go south rather than stay home with Moira, who cost $3 million at auction and has banked $1,513,999 from her 14: 5-5-2 career.

“We’re not looking at money in that sense,” he said. “It’s just part of the game. She’s obviously banked quite a bit of money to pay for herself. The ultimate goal is obviously the Breeders’ Cup and upping her value as a broodmare. She’s won the Canadian already, right? So if she could add the Beverly D. to her résumé, that just adds a little bit of incentive there.”

Trainers for First World War and Fulmineo, both cross-entered in the one-mile, $500,000 Secretariat (G2) at Colonial and the 1 3/16-mile, $600,000 Saratoga Derby Invitational (G1) on Sunday, also faced either-or choices. Brendan Walsh confirmed he was skipping both races to focus instead on Kentucky Downs, a decision first reported by “At the Races” host Steve Byk. Fulmineo will start in the Saratoga Derby, according to his trainer Arnaud Delacour.