The big question for anyone pointing toward the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Oct. 31 is what the connections of division leader Private Zone ultimately decide to do over the next several weeks.

Trainer Jorge Navarro and stable manager Rene Douglas remained undecided Wednesday as to whether to run the four-time Grade 1 winner in the Sprint, as was their original intention, or stretch him out for the Dirt Mile. One thing is for certain, according to Navarro: Private Zone couldn’t be doing any better at present.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – If not for the Oct. 30-31 Breeders’ Cup, the Saturday card on opening weekend would be easily the richest this month at Keeneland.

As it is, it’s still pretty good.

The Shadwell Turf Mile, the traditional fall-meet signature event, anchors a 10-race card that features five straight graded races. All but one, the First Lady, are Win and You’re In events toward the Breeders’ Cup. NBC has live coverage from 5-6 p.m. Eastern.

In reverse order, snapshots of the Saturday races:

When Keeneland switched its main track from Polytrack to dirt last autumn, one goal was to make its stakes races more significant as preps for the Breeders’ Cup in the fall.

It didn’t take long for that to occur. Take Charge Brandi, racing in the opening-day Alcibiades in 2014, set a wicked pace and faded to eighth but returned the following month to pull off a front-running upset in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies by outlasting Alcibiades runner-up Top Decile.

It has been more than 25 years since the celebrated battles between Sunday Silence and Easy Goer, but the memories of what happened in the fall of 1989 are playing into the management of Honor Code as he prepares for his major year-end goal, the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 31 at Keeneland.

Few American horsemen will watch Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris as attentively as owner Ken Ramsey and trainer Chad Brown. They will be scouting the potential competition for their Big Blue Kitten ahead of the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland on Oct. 31.

Big Blue Kitten was a gritty winner of the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at 1 1/2 miles on turf at Belmont Park last Saturday, a victory that makes him the leading domestic contender for the BC Turf, the richest turf race in North America.

The Breeders’ Cup Distaff historically attracts moderate numbers. The 9.1 average field size is the smallest of the BC races. That will change this fall at Keeneland, where a 14-runner maximum is taking shape pending the final Distaff prep race this weekend.

The Grade 1 Spinster Stakes on Sunday at Keeneland is expected to include four Distaff candidates – Untapable, the 2014 Distaff winner; Lovely Maria, the 2015 Kentucky Oaks winner; Frivolous, a Grade 2 winner; and Got Lucky, a Grade 3 winner.

With the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile just four weeks from Friday, the only remaining major stepping-stone to the $1 million race is Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park.

The one-mile Kelso will be headed by Honor Code, who despite earning a fees-paid berth to the Dirt Mile by winning the Met Mile, is most likely headed to the Classic.

Ken Ramsey is known for astutely playing the claiming game. One of his more significant acquisitions came when he picked up Celestial Woods, a winning Forestry mare, for $25,000 out of her career finale, a runner-up effort at Churchill Downs in November 2007.

Sent to the court of the Ramseys’ homebred turf champion, Kitten’s Joy, Celestial Woods has produced four winners from as many starters. Her pair of stakes winners includes Bobby’s Kitten, who last year rallied to victory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita.

Channel Marker could be the first Breeders’ Cup starter for 30-year-old Kentucky native Phil Bauer. The horse’s road to the championship series runs through Keeneland on Saturday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Woodford. The 5 1/2-furlong race is a key prep for the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, which will be run over the same distance and course Oct. 31.

Songbird moved to the top of the 2-year-old filly division with her 4 1/2-length win in the Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday and is the likely favorite for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies – especially since her top rivals from the East, Rachel’s Valentina and Tap to It, will train up to the Oct. 31 race.