Moreno to Drill for Travers Saturday

Trainer Eric Guillot said he would drill rising 3-year-old Moreno six furlongs on the main track Saturday, his penultimate work before a run in the Grade 1 Travers.

The gelded son of Ghostzapper needed 10 starts to break his maiden but then turned around and won the Grade 2 Dwyer on July 6 at Belmont Park in eye-opening fashion, pulling away by seven lengths. In his most recent start, Moreno made the pace in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy before being overhauled by eventual winner Palace Malice and holding on gamely for third.

"He's good. He's better than he was before," Guillot said of Moreno. "He's going to have to be, right?"

Moreno went the first quarter-mile of the Jim Dandy in 24.06 seconds and the half-mile in 47.48. Guillot hopes the horse can get a softer pace in the 1 ¼-mile Travers.

"I think they're going to go 48 and change versus a 23-second second quarter; we're going to get 24 and change so we're going to have a little something left in the tank," he said. "A mile and a quarter versus a mile and an eighth. Inner fractions make the race, as we all know if we know anything about horse racing. Every horse has a spleen. Every horse has X amount of hemoglobin and oxygen. It's like anything else. If you had a pellet gun as a kid with a CO2 cartridge, or a tire with so much air - anything that pertains to running out of oxygen or fuel - it's the same thing."

Guillot also plans to work Salutos Amigos on Saturday morning in preparation for the Grade 1, $500,000 Foxwood's King's Bishop at seven furlongs on Travers Day.

In the Grade 2 Amsterdam on July 28, Salutos Amigos dropped back on the turn, and then charged up the rail in the stretch to finish third at 21-1 behind winner Forty Tales. The colt had been off the board in three previous stakes starts.

"I've got a shot with Salutos Amigos in the King's Bishop; it's loaded with speed," Guillot said. "I got his feet right, and he's going in the right direction. He galloped out past Forty Tales the other day and got beat a jump and a half. The kid [jockey Jose Ortiz] kind of shoved him in there then realized they were going real fast and took back out and came on again. And he needed a race, too."

Rarely seen on the backstretch in the morning without a baseball cap, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin broke out a special one for this week.

The dark blue cap he wore on Wednesday had "Invasor" stitched in white across the front, honoring one of the members of the Class of 2013 to be enshrined into the Racing Hall of Fame Friday morning.

"We were very pleased and happy," McLaughlin said of Invasor's induction. "It was great to have the privilege of training such a great horse, probably the best horse I'll ever train. I hope there's another one, but it's going to be difficult to duplicate his career."

Bred in Argentina, Invasor won 11 of 12 starts and more than $7.8 million, and was voted Horse of the Year and Champion Older Male in 2006 after victories in the Breeders' Cup Classic, Pimlico Special, Suburban and Whitney handicaps, the latter at Saratoga.

"He didn't jump off the plane or the van with 'wow' written on him," McLaughlin said. "It took us a little while. He worked well with a lot of nice horses and then we went to Dubai, and that was the only race he lost. When we came back and ran him in the Pimlico Special, that's when we said 'wow.' We started to realize we had a serious horse. He was just such a neat horse. He was a fabulous horse for our family and our people."

Coming up, McLaughlin is targeting the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama on August 17 with lightly-raced Carnival Court, who would be making her stakes debut in Saratoga's premiere event for 3-year-old fillies.

"Carnival Court for the Alabama is likely," McLaughlin said. "We hate to say we're running for third, but we would be tickled to death to be third. She's had three races and won her last two. The distance we know she would like, a mile and a quarter. She's doing very well."

Sixth in her career debut at Gulfstream Park on April 5, Carnival Court broke her maiden on May 31 and beat winners in an allowance optional claimer on July 7, both at Belmont Park. A daughter of Street Sense out of the A.P. Indy mare Delta Princess, she schooled at the starting gate on Wednesday.

McLaughlin also said that Villanesca, winner of the Magnolia Jackson stakes at Belmont on June 5 in her most recent start, is possible for the Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina on August 23.

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Thursday's 2 1/16-mile Mrs. Ogden Phipps Stakes has attracted a well-matched field of 10 mares, including the top finishers from the $50,000 Margaret Currey Henley Stakes for female jumpers at Nashville's Iroquois Steeplechase on May 11.

Well Fashioned, the 5-2 favorite on the morning line, returned to her best form in the Henley and surged late to a nose victory. Trained by Doug Fout, the Virginia-bred Cozzene mare had won the Crown Royal Stakes at the Steeplechase at Callaway in Georgia for the second straight year last November.

Just missing in the Henley was Clarke Ohrstrom's Kisser N Run, who is the 3-1 second choice on the morning line as she goes in search of her first 2013 victory. In her first start of the year, the 5-year-old Pleasant Tap mare had finished second in the Atlanta Steeplechase's Georgia Cup on April 13. After winning her maiden victory last fall, Kisser N Run was acquired by Ohrstrom and won the Peapack Stakes at Far Hills, N.J. Trainer Richard Valentine named Robbie Walsh to ride.

The Henley's third finisher, Octoraro Stables' Euro Power, will be handled for the first time by Paddy Young. Beaten six lengths in the Henley, Euro Power is trained by Blythe Miller Davies and is 10-1 on the morning line.

Rounding out the field is the entry of Take Her Tothe Top and Opera Heroine, along with Casablanca Lily, Lillehammer, Hunter Forward, Cubist, and The Grey Express.