INGLEWOOD, Calif. – A veteran Grade 1 winner trying to regain top form and an exceptional 2-year-old filly making the first start of her career share the spotlight Thursday on an appealing card at Betfair Hollywood Park.

Rail Trip is a 7-year-old gelding with a million-dollar résumé and three graded stakes wins, including the Hollywood Gold Cup.

Executiveprivilege is a $650,000 juvenile with fast works and an optimistic assessment by trainer Bob Baffert: “I think she is pretty special.”

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The conversation between owner Samantha Siegel and trainer Ron Ellis was quick and to the point.

Rail Trip, a four-time stakes winner with Ellis in 2009 and 2010, had lost his rider at the start of a minor stakes at Aqueduct last November when Siegel decided she had seen enough. A winless five-race campaign for Rail Trip in New York was about to end. The gelding was on his way back to California and Ellis.

“I told him, ‘How would you like to have Rail Trip?’ ” Siegel recalls. “I kind of knew the answer.”

Rail Trip, the millionaire and four-time stakes winner, may make his 2012 debut in the $100,000 Los Angeles Handicap over six furlongs on May 28.

A 7-year-old gelding, Rail Trip has been in training with Ron Ellis since late winter. A winner of 8 of 17 starts and $1,116,790, Rail Trip was trained by Richard Dutrow Jr. in late 2010 and early 2011, going winless in five starts.

Prior to that, Rail Trip was trained by Ellis from the start of his career in late 2008 to the summer of 2010, a period highlighted by a win in the 2010 Hollywood Gold Cup.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Don’t sleep in, or you’ll miss the Sunny and Mild overnight stakes, which starts Thursday’s Big A program at 12:20 p.m. Eastern.

The $60,000 opener, once around the main track at 1 1/8 miles, drew a field of six and presents a somewhat unusual situation: 6-5 morning-line favorite Rail Trip hasn’t won in 17 months, and 5-2 second choice Ron the Greek hasn’t won in almost 22 months.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Going into last month’s Whitney Invitational Handicap at Saratoga, trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. thought Rail Trip was ready to join the ranks of the elite in the handicap division. After watching Rail Trip finish a well-beaten seventh to Tizway, Dutrow didn’t know what to think.

So, instead of pressing on in graded stakes company, Dutrow has decided to take a step back with Rail Trip, entering him in Thursday’s $60,000 Pot O’ Luck Stakes, which serves as the featured event on Belmont Park’s nine-race card.

ELMONT, N.Y. − Rail Trip won’t be participating in his third consecutive Hollywood Gold Cup when that race is run Saturday at Hollywood Park. But that doesn’t mean his connections don’t have big plans for him.

After watching Rail Trip run a bang-up second in an overnight stakes last month at Belmont Park, trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. is pointing him to the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga on Aug. 6. On Thursday, Rail Trip worked six furlongs in 1:13.36 over a fast but dull Aqueduct main track.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Though already established as one of the top older horses in training for two straight years, Rail Trip still has much to prove in Saturday’s $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.

After racing exclusively on the synthetic surfaces at Hollywood Park, Santa Anita, and Del Mar – where he won 8 of 12 starts, including three graded stakes – Rail Trip makes his first start on dirt in the Gold Cup. Not only does Rail Trip have to run off a 12-week layoff, but he has to go 1 1/4 miles against arguably the best horse in training, Blame.

ELMONT, N.Y. – “We’re ready now.”

Those were the words of trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. Thursday morning after Rail Trip worked six furlongs in 1:11.97 over Aqueduct’s main track in preparation for a start in the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Oct. 2.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Exactly 51 years to the day since The Babe was a baby, trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. celebrated his birthday by sending out four stars from his barn, including new arrival Rail Trip, for workouts Thursday morning at Saratoga.

Rail Trip’s work, his first since his shocking move to Dutrow following last month’s Hollywood Gold Cup, was the most keenly anticipated of the four, but the sprinter D’ Funnybone, older horse I Want Revenge, and 2-year-old Boys At Tosconova all had important drills for upcoming races.