Gio Ponti is the morning-line favorites for the Arlington Million at Arlington Park on Saturday, but it would be unwise to trust him with too much of your money.

America’s best turf horse, Gio Ponti, has lost five of his last six starts. What he beat in Belmont’s Man o’ War Stakes last time in snapping his five-race losing streak is hardly worth mentioning, especially as the painfully slow pace turned the race into a sprint. The question hanging over this year’s Million is: Is there anything in the race good enough to beat Gio Ponti?

The Frank De Francis Memorial Dash, the premier race of Laurel Park’s fall meet, will not be held this year, the Maryland Jockey Club announced Thursday.

The $200,000 Remington Park Sprint Cup on Saturday night could be Atta Boy Roy’s final prep for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He has established himself as an elite member of the division over the last several months, with a sparkling win in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs on the Kentucky Derby undercard in May and a runner-up finish to future Grade 1 winner Majesticperfection in the $125,000 Iowa Sprint Handicap in June.

EDMONTON, Alberta – With the likely favorites possessing plenty of speed in the Grade 3, $300,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park on Saturday, the race is crying for a horse to come from off the pace to spring an upset.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Evening Jewel was a restless filly at trainer Jim Cassidy’s stable earlier this week, just days before Saturday’s $300,000 Del Mar Oaks.

Whatever Cassidy and his staff tried, Evening Jewel would not settle.

“She’s tearing the barn down,” Cassidy said. “I put her in a pen to see if that would help. She’s bucking and squealing.”

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Arlington Million has Gio Ponti. The Secretariat has Paddy O’Prado. And the Beverly D. has . . . um . . .

Your call. Definitely your call. For as orderly as favoritism appears for the Million and Secretariat, chaos reigns for horseplayers attempting to get a handle on the third Grade 1 event Saturday at Arlington Park, the 21st running of the $750,000 Beverly D.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – I Want Revenge passed the first barrier in July, returning from a 15-month layoff to run third in the Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park.

On Saturday, I Want Revenge tries to prove he still has the winning edge in the Grade 3, $300,000 Philip H. Iselin Stakes at Monmouth Park.

I Want Revenge tops a field of six in the 1 1/8-mile race with Joe Bravo aboard the 4-year-old, replacing Joe Talamo, who is sidelined with a fractured wrist sustained in a spill at Del Mar.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – After winning her first two starts of the season, Miss Reginella was supposed to see her first stakes action here at Woodbine this spring in the Lady Angela. But that plan failed to come to fruition after Miss Reginella, who is owned by Frank Romano and trained by Mike DePaulo, missed training time with a virus and had to pass up the seven-furlong Lady Angela on May 24.

On Saturday, Miss Reginella will be looking to register an upset in the $125,000 Eternal Search, a 1 1/16-mile race for Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. − Trainer Albert Stall was planning to return Whitney Handicap winner Blame to the worktab Saturday. Blame had other ideas.

Believing Blame was a bit too full of himself, Stall called an audible and worked Blame an easy half-mile in 50.50 seconds Thursday morning over the Oklahoma training track. Under exercise rider Randi Melton, Blame went his first quarter in 25.51 seconds and his second quarter in 24.99. He galloped out five furlongs in 1:04.57.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The synthetic-track era at Santa Anita will end this fall.

Frank Stronach, chairman of Santa Anita’s parent company MI Developments, told a group of approximately 250 horsemen on Wednesday evening that Santa Anita will replace its existing Pro-Ride synthetic surface with a conventional dirt track after the conclusion of the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting on Oct. 31.

Stronach said the new dirt track would be in place “by the first week of December,” well in advance of the opening of the winter-spring meeting at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.