Zito has runners in final 4 Grade 1 races

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Nick Zito is ready for a busy final weekend of the Saratoga season. The Hall of Fame trainer has a starter for each of the final four Grade 1 races on the schedule: the Woodward, Forego, Hopeful, and Spinaway.

The flurry of stakes activity begins Saturday with Commentator in the Forego and Sun King in the Woodward. Zito will saddle Ruby Crown, from George Steinbrenner's Kinsman Farm, in the Spinaway on Sunday, and close out what has been a successful meeting - 9 for 40 through Monday's card - on Monday with Irish Ace in the Hopeful.

The New York-bred Commentator, who edged Horse of the Year Saint Liam in the 2005 Whitney, returns to the scene of his most important triumph for owner Tracy Farmer in the $250,000 Forego on Saturday. A bit later on the program, Sun King, a loser by a nose to Invasor in the Whitney, will run for Farmer in the first Woodward staged at Saratoga. The Woodward for most of its history has been run at Belmont Park.

Zito doesn't mind that Invasor, who also beat the Zito-trained Wanderin Boy in the Pimlico Special, is sitting out the Woodward.

"I hated to lose the Pimlico Special because [Invasor] was beat," Zito said. "He's a heckuva horse, that Invasor. Obviously, I think Bernardini is a better horse, but that's not such a hard pick. If anybody is capable of beating Bernardini, I guess it is Invasor.

"I wish we would have won the Whitney. Sun King really battled. It would have been great."

In the past, Zito rarely entered Saratoga's graded stakes for 2-year-olds because he did not start his younger horses very often during the summer. That philosophy has changed, and his 2-year-olds have run well at the Saratoga this year.