The 12-race September to Remember I program at Laurel Park on Saturday includes eight stakes with total purses of $1.3 million. Another six stakes worth $600,000 will be on tap next Saturday for September to Remember II as Laurel puts on its biggest festival this side of Preakness weekend. Co-featured Saturday are the Grade 3, $200,000 Baltimore/Washington International Turf Cup at one mile and the Grade 3, $250,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at six furlongs on dirt. Both have competitive fields and are part of the late pick five and Rainbow 6. The Turf Cup features the return to competition of Glorious Empire, an Eclipse Awards finalist for 2018 male turf champion. Campaigned by Matt Schera and based with Chuck Lawrence at the Fair Hill Training Center, Glorious Empire won four of his final five starts last year, including a 15-1 upset in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer and a 22-1 dead-heat win four weeks earlier in the Grade 2 Bowling Green, both at Saratoga. Glorious Empire’s sudden improvement at age 7 corresponded with Lawrence stretching the English-bred out to longer distances. But on Saturday, he will make his first start in nine months at what is likely shorter than his best. It’s hard to know what to expect. In his final race of 2018, Glorious Empire led throughout in the Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale Stakes at Gulfstream Park. That race was supposed to be a bridge to the $7 million Pegasus World Turf Cup, but soon thereafter he was found to have a tear in his right front suspensory. It has been a long road back. “We did stem-cell treatment on him.” Lawrence said. “Everything has been good. We’re looking forward to getting him back to the races.” Glorious Empire has worked eight times since mid-July but did miss some time in August when he came down with a virus, according to Lawrence. He didn’t have an official breeze between Aug. 10-29. Lawrence said he wouldn’t be surprised if Glorious Empire needed a start to get back in the swing of things. “It’s a mile, which is not really his distance, but the race is right here in our backyard and Laurel has a good turf course,” Lawrence said. If one is going to take a wait-and-see approach with Glorious Empire, the eight-horse race could boil down to Just Howard, late-developing Frontier Market, and Up the Ante. Just Howard disappointed at even-money against Maryland-breds last out in the Find Stakes but fits here off his best. Four weeks prior to the Find, he rallied to beat Divisidero by a nose in the Grade 3 Oceanport at Monmouth on a sizzling-hot Haskell evening. “Maybe he regressed a little bit off that race,” trainer Graham Motion said. “He seems to have done well since, so I think he needs to be in there.” Frontier Market, 6, has raced only 10 times but has won three of his last four, all for Chad Brown. Most recently, he rallied from behind slow fractions to win a second-level optional claimer going a mile at Saratoga. Up the Ante, trained by Christophe Clement, comes off a front-running score in a high-level optional-claiming race at Saratoga. He controlled a slow pace in that race, then sprinted home. Manny Franco has the mount.