Arles ending 10-month layoff

Arles is the likely favorite in the $200,000 Long Island Handicap at Aqueduct on Breeders’ Cup Saturday, but she has been away from the races a long time and will have to traverse 1 1/2 miles of turf off works alone.

The Grade 3 Long Island, for fillies and mares, has a field of six and is slotted as the third on a 10-race card that begins at 12:15 p.m. Eastern. The Aqueduct program is scheduled to conclude at 5:12 p.m., with five Breeders’ Cup stakes remaining at Del Mar.

The $100,000 Chelsey Flower, a mile race over the inner turf for 2-year-old fillies, has a field of 12, plus one main track-only entrant, and will be held as the ninth. The race was scheduled for the washed-out Sunday card at Belmont Park last week and has since been redrawn.

Arles has not raced since finishing second to Suffused in the Grade 3 La Prevoyante at Gulfstream Park in January. Bred in France, she raced in Germany with trainer Andreas Wohler until being purchased by Team Valor International in summer 2016 and imported to the United States.

In her U.S. debut for Wohler, she was beaten three-quarters of a length by Suffused when second in the 1 3/8-mile Glens Falls at Saratoga.

She was then transferred to Graham Motion, who sent her to Del Mar for the Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap at 1 3/8 miles. She came up a nose short in that race to Nuovo Record, a Japanese runner who finished 11th in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf and then stayed here for the Red Carpet before heading home.

Motion kept Arles in California until early January, then sent her to Palm Meadows in Florida. Although her only Florida start came in the La Prevoyante, she remained in steady training before heading to Keeneland.

“She came up with a little issue at Keeneland this spring and we gave her a break over the summer,” Motion said. “She’s doing very well and hopefully I’ve done enough with her.”

Motion has worked Arles nine times at Fair Hill, including six furlongs in 1:16 over the turf Oct. 27.

“I was particularly pleased with that work,” Motion said. “The last quarter-mile is uphill, and she did it very well.”

The unknown quantity in the Long Island is Playful Sound, who will be making her U.S. debut for Christophe Clement after having raced in Great Britain.

Playful Sound has disappointed as the favorite in her last three races, which came at Salisbury, York, and Nottingham, but will be first-time Lasix on Saturday. Clement has put a nice series of six works over the Belmont inner turf into her since Sept. 24.

Galileo’s Song has made only two starts at 4, both for Chad Brown, but is consistent and could go postward as second choice to Arles.

Summersault, who races for Mark Hennig, won the Grade 3 Orchid at Gulfstream last winter and is the only graded or group winner in the lineup. She is the 120-pound highweight and will give her rivals from two to four pounds.

The complexion of the Chelsey Flower is different from a week ago with the addition of the maiden Brattata, who should be among the favorites for Brown despite having drawn post 12.

Brattata showed a strong turn of foot in her Saratoga debut to be second over 5 1/2 furlongs of turf, closing from far back while wide but running out of real estate.

She was an unlucky third in her second start, which came at seven furlongs over the Widener turf course at Belmont. In good stalking position along the inside early, she was steadied while blocked in upper stretch, then tried splitting the leaders late but again ran out of time. She galloped out in front past the finish.

Her primary challengers appear to be impressive Saratoga maiden winner Golden Orb; Night Time Lady, the winner of Brattata’s second start; and Radiant Beauty, whom Brattata rallied past late in her debut.