• Race for leading trainer may go right down to the wire
• Hot Dixie Chick in good shape following Spinaway Score
• Summer Bird now nesting at Belmont Park

Heading into today’s final card of the 141st meet at Saratoga Race Course, Linda Rice holds a slim 20-19 edge over Todd Pletcher in the battle for supremacy among trainers.

Rice has never won a training title at a meet in New York, while Pletcher has 19 separate meet titles, including six at Saratoga – 1998 and 2002-06.

Last year at the Spa, Pletcher was second with 15 wins behind leading trainer Kiaran McLaughin (17). Rice was tied for 8th here in 2008 with Gary Contessa (9).

Today, Rice is entered in four races:
Hurricane Annie (9-2) in the first
Power Blast (10-1) in the sixth
Shot Gun Gal (9-2) in the eighth
Conseated Lady (8-1) in the 11th

Pletcher has horses entered in five races:
Go Go Pink (7-2) in the first
The entry of Camindora and Dad’s Crazy (5-1) in the second
Good to Be Seen (8-5) in the fifth
Eskendereya (6-1) in the sixth
One Note Samba (12-1) and Aikenite (20-1) in the 10th

Hot Dixie Chick, Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinaway winner, had returned to her usual laid-back self Monday morning.

“Oh, she’s fast,” said trainer Steve Asmussen. “But what’s interesting is that otherwise her personality just so unassuming. She’s doing super, ate well. Watching her yesterday and seeing how well she handled seven-eighths of a mile, you get to thinking silly things, so that’s what we’ll do for now.”

Asmussen said the Spinaway had been the primary objective for the filly and that he had not made any long term plans beyond yesterday’s race.

With three colts entered in this afternoon’s Grade 1, $300,000 Three Chimneys Hopeful, Asmussen will have plenty of opportunity to end an already stellar meet on a high note. With 13 wins going into Monday’s card, he is fourth in the Saratoga trainer standings including four graded stakes wins. Hot Dixie Chick brought two of those victories, winning the Grade 3 Schuylerville on Opening Day as well as yesterday’s feature; Kensei captured the Grade 2 Jim Dandy on August 1; and, of course, Rachel Alexandra’s heart-stopping, historic victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Woodward.

“Crazy good week,” Asmussen summarized. “Crazy good life.”

Among the visitors to Asmussen’s barn Monday morning were NYRA’s Director of Racing Surfaces, Glen Kozak, his wife and their three children, who met and posed for photos with Rachel Alexandra.

“Other than Jess (Jackson, owner), Scott (Blasi, assistant trainer) and Dominic (Terry, exercise rider), Glen had the most to do with getting her to run in the Woodward than anyone,” Asmussen said. “There was a time where it seemed to rain every minute and he kept the track so she could work. I can’t say enough about the job he’s done on the racetracks here this summer.”

Travers and Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird has flown south.

Looking toward a run in the Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on October 3, the colt has relocated to the scene of his late-spring triumph, arriving Monday morning at approximately 9:15 a.m. after leaving Saratoga Race Course at 5:30 a.m. to make the 200-mile journey downstate.

“It was an uneventful trip – not much traffic, it being a holiday,” said trainer Tim Ice. “He’s doing great and in the same stall he had for the Belmont.”

Summer Bird, who has a reputation for loving “his grass and his sleep,” should be happy to return to his favorite grazing patch behind his barn at Belmont Park.

“I already had him out there,” Ice said, reached by phone just a half-hour after his arrival at Belmont. “He was happy to be there.”