Trainer David Hofmans hopes the return to a conventional dirt surface is the key to turning around the fortunes of Balance in the distaff division.

Hofmans, based in Southern California, has shipped Balance cross-country for Saturday's Grade 1, $600,000 Beldame at Belmont Park, where she'll meet multiple Grade 1 winner Ginger Punch in a key prep for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff at Monmouth Park on Oct. 27. Indian Vale, Miss Shop, Mo Cuishle, and Unbridled Belle are also expected to run in the 1 1/8-mile Beldame.

To prep or not to prep? That is the question facing trainers pointing for this year's Breeders' Cup Sprint.

While a number of trainers will use Saturday's Grade 1 Vosburgh or the following weekend's Grade 1 Ancient Title or Grade 2 Phoenix Breeders' Cup to bring their horses into the Sprint, others will train their candidates up to the Breeders' Cup. That group includes Bob Baffert with Midnight Lute, Eddie Kenneally with Kelly's Landing, Rick Violette with High Finance, and Rick Schosberg with Attila's Storm.

There is a sense of mystery surrounding the run-up to the Breeders' Cup Turf as all but two of the original 14 invitees to Sunday's Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont declined the honor. One of those that will run, Kiss the Kid, has never won beyond 1 1/16 miles, but the other, English Channel, looms the prohibitive favorite in the 1 1/2-mile test.

With the success trainer Larry Jones has had this year with Breeders' Cup Classic candidate Hard Spun, it is easy to forget that he built his reputation with fillies. Among the best he has trained are Grade 1 winners Island Sand and Wildcat Bettie B.

Proud Spell could join that list next month. She is headed to the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Monmouth Park on Oct. 27 following a sweeping 4 1/4-length victory last weekend in the Grade 2 Matron at Belmont Park. The win was the third in as many career starts for Proud Spell.

With a domestic team expected to include Citronnade, Honey Ryder, Nashoba's Key, and Wait a While, this may be a year when American-based horses claim the $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Monmouth Park on Oct. 27 from their European rivals.

European-based females have dominated the race, winning three of the last four runnings. The probable starters for Filly and Mare Turf at 1 3/8 miles will become clearer over the next three weeks, with major races run throughout the United States and Europe.

One of the most highly anticipated matchups in this year's Breeders' Cup involves two fast and talented 3-year-old fillies, two-time Grade 1 winner Dream Rush and the undefeated La Traviata, in the new Filly and Mare Sprint. But if La Traviata's connections get what they want, this face-off won't happen.

"We're also thinking of the real Sprint," said Patrick Biancone, trainer of La Traviata, referring to the established Breeders' Cup Sprint open to males. "If we can get a spot in the colts race, the owners would want to do that. They're sportsmen, you know."

Doctor Dino's victory in the Man o' War Stakes did not bode well for American Breeders' Cup Turf hopefuls. Timeform rates him just the 50th best older European horse in training. There are a dozen Turf possibles from Europe that would have him over a barrel.

With Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches done for the year and the undefeated Nashoba's Key tentatively targeting the Filly and Mare Turf, Ginger Punch now becomes the long-range favorite for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff.

That's if her connections put up $180,000 to supplement to the race.

"The only thing I'm scared of, and I'm talking about it and I'll probably do it, is end in the 14 hole if you put up $180,000," trainer Bobby Frankel said. "Now, the race is going to fill up a lot without Rags in there."

This year's Breeders' Cup will be the first run at Monmouth Park, the first that will encompass two days, and the first that will include 11 races. Much will be new. But when it comes to the biggest and richest race of the 24th Breeders' Cup, familiarity is the rule.

The sprint division had been wide open all year. But that all changed in the 81 seconds it took Midnight Lute to run seven furlongs in his easy victory in Saratoga's Grade 1 Forego on Sept. 1, a performance that suddenly established the 4-year-old son of Real Quiet as the solid favorite to win the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Monmouth Park on Oct. 27.

Midnight Lute earned a 124 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest figure by any horse this year.