Trips key for Olaya and Rowdy

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - arrive at the Grade 3, $100,000 Glens Falls Handicap Monday at Saratoga with an opportunity to improve on good but not-quite-perfect performances in their previous starts.

In each case, they encountered a problem that hurt their chances of making it to the winner's circle.

Olaya, a Theatrical filly trained by H. Graham Motion for Prince Faisal Salman, returned from a three-month layoff to finish second by a head on July 15 in the R.G. Dick Breeders' Cup Handicap at Delaware Park. Rowdy also was a runner-up, by three-quarters of a length in the Waya at Saratoga on Aug. 11.

Olaya has two wins and three seconds since arriving in Motion's barn from France last year. In the 1 3/8-mile R.G. Dick under jockey Ramon Domin-guez, she just missed while trying to lead the field from gate to wire.

"The last time she was really taken out of her game," Motion said. "It was just a paceless race and we kind of had to do the dirty work by going to the lead, which I don't really think is her style."

Trainer Tom Voss has found that patience with Rowdy, who will be ridden by Eibar Coa, has brought success. She has a win, two seconds, a third, and a fourth this season.

"We've sort of ridden her differently this year," Voss said. "She has like a quarter of a mile run to her, a real good fast sprint. If somebody will just sit there long enough and not be inching up down the backside with her, she makes a really good run.

"Unfortunately, in the Waya she came around 10 horses and was out past the middle of the racetrack."

Ten fillies and mares were entered in the Glens Falls, the final grass stakes of the 2006 Saratoga meet. Only nine can start in the 1 3/8-mile race over the inner turf course. Wait It Out landed on the also-eligible list.

The Glens Falls drew multiple stakes winner Noble Stella, the beaten favorite in her last start, the Grade 2 Dance Smartly at Woodbine, after wins early this year in the Bewitch at Keeneland and the New York Breeders' Cup Handicap at Belmont Park. The race also drew the first- and third-place finishers in the Waya, Shared Dreams and Milwaukee, both trained by Christophe Clement.