• Big A schooling session for Quality Road; Spritely, Munnings, The Roundhouse aiming toward Holiday Fest stakes
• Top Flight next for Sara Louise; Gazelle for Flashing; Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile on tap for Vineyard Haven, possibly Pyro
• Porte Bonheur in top form heading to Top Flight
• Fields taking shape for Holiday Fest Stakes

Schooling sessions for Edward P. Evans’ Quality Road continue Saturday morning at Aqueduct Racetrack, where the 3-year-old son of Elusive Quality will go through the paddock and load into the gate with jockey John Velazquez aboard as his connections ponder a start in the Grade 1, $300,000 Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile here on November 28.

“We’ll try to simulate a race scenario a little bit, and see if we can load him without incident,” said Pletcher of Quality Road, who was scratched from the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on November 7 after a meltdown at the gate. “He’ll breeze on Sunday, we’ll see how that goes, and get with Mr. Evans and come up with a plan.”

Quality Road arrived back in New York on Tuesday by van, and began schooling sessions at Belmont Park the following morning under the supervision of Bob Duncan, the former starter for The New York Racing Association, Inc., who frequently works as a consultant.

“I think he’s handled everything since he’s shipped in,” said Pletcher. “He’s done as well as you can hope for, but obviously this wouldn’t be the way you would draw it up. He’s been schooling perfect. The whole gate crew has gone out of their way, which we appreciate.”

Pletcher added that Michael Tabor’s Munnings, coming off a trio of Grade 1 third-place finishes in the Vosburgh, King’s Bishop and Haskell Invitational, will start in the Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile whether or not Quality Road goes.

“One has nothing to do with the other, really,” he said. “I think Munnings gets a mile, no problem. If you look back at his Haskell at a mile and an eighth, he was right there at the eighth pole, and was just beaten by Summer Bird. Obviously, Rachel Alexandra was an impressive winner but I felt he held his own pretty well.”

Other Holiday Fest starters from Pletcher’s barn include Evans’ Spritely, who tries for her first graded stakes score in the Grade 2, $150,000 Top Flight Handicap on Friday, November 27, and Repole Stables’ The Roundhouse, who is being pointed toward the Grade 3, $100,000 Fall Highweight Handicap on Thanksgiving Day.

Pletcher said Starlight Partners’ Grade 3 Tempted winner Ailalea developed a fever two nights ago and will miss the Grade 2, $200,000 Demoiselle for 2-year-old fillies on November 28, and that WinStar Farm’s Super Saver remains under consideration for the Grade 2, $200,000 Remsen, also for 2-year-olds, the same day.

“He is a possible for the Remsen or the Kentucky Jockey Club,” said Pletcher of the colt, fourth in the Grade 1 Champagne. “If he doesn’t run in the Remsen, we will not have a starter.”

Godolphin Stables looks to wrap up a spectacular year in New York next week with Grade 1 Test winner Flashing going in the Grade 1, $300,000 Gazelle on November 28, Grade 3 Victory Ride winner Sara Louise heading to the Top Flight, and Vineyard Haven and possibly Pyro going in the Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile.

Flashing, who followed her victory in the Test with a third in the Grade 3 Presque Isle Downs Masters Stakes and a 12th-place finish as the favorite in the Grade 2 Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland, also over a synthetic surface, will conclude her career where she began, having won three of her first four starts at the Big A. She breezed Thursday morning in 1:11.02 for the 1 1/8th mile Gazelle.

Sara Louise, fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint in her most recent start, also breezed Thursday morning in 59.66 in preparation for the one-mile Top Flight.

“Sara Louise ran okay [in the Breeders’ Cup],” said Rick Mettee, assistant trainer for Godolphin, which won seven graded stakes (five of them Grade 1’s) and more than $1.8 million in New York this year. “We thought she would actually move up on the synthetic they way she trained over it, but she didn’t. We thought she would be a competitive third in there and to see her come in a modest fourth was a little surprising.

“But, she came back and worked well yesterday. She’ll run in the Top Flight and then get the winter off.”

Mettee said that Vineyard Haven, who won the De Francis Dash in his most recent start for the third Grade 1 win of his career, breezed six furlongs in 1:13.03 Thursday morning and may work once more for the Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile.

“We’ll see what the weather does next week. He should be spot on for this race,” said Mettee, adding that a decision would be made about Grade 1 Forego winner Pyro, who was 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, following his scheduled work this Sunday.

“If Pyro breezes good on Sunday we may take a shot in the Cigar Mile; he may run as an entry with Vineyard Haven,” he said.

Mettee said that Grade 1 Go for Wand winner Seventh Street, Grade 1 Beldame winner Cocoa Beach, and Music Note, who won five Grade 1’s in the Mother Goose, Coaching Club American Oaks, Gazelle, Ballerina and Beldame, have been retired, and that Justenuffhumor, Regal Ransom and Gayego will be heading to Dubai while Sara Louise and Vineyard Haven will remain in New York.

“We’ll pick them up in the spring when we return,” said Mettee. “Needless to say, it’s been a great year, and I hope we can win one more Grade 1 next week.”

Johanna Murphy-Leopoldsberger’s Porte Bonheur is scheduled to have her final work Saturday for the Top Flight Handicap.

The 4-year-old Hennessy filly exits a pair of third-place finishes in the Ontario Fashion Stakes at Woodbine on November 1 and the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland on October 10.

The Top Flight has been on Porte Bonheur’s calendar since trainer David Duggan decided earlier this fall to skip this year’s Breeders’ Cup.

“All systems go,” Carl Allsop, Duggan’s assistant, said Friday. “We couldn’t be happier with her. She was supposed to work today, but Mother Nature decided against it. She’s got a shiny bronze/copper glow about her and she looks awesome. When she’s feeling good she displays that in the afternoons too. Right now, a little drop in the temperature, she’s on her toes and firing on all cylinders.”

The chestnut filly has established a solid record in New York, running second in the Grade 2 Vagrancy and winning the Grade 2 First Flight at Belmont Park last spring. The Top Flight will mark her first start at Aqueduct since a fourth-place finish in the 2007 Xtra Heat Stakes a 2-year-old.

Holiday Fest kicks off on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, with the 96th running of the Grade 3, $100,000-added Fall Highweight Handicap. Expected to run are King Leatherbury’s Grade 3 Toboggan Handicap winner Ah Day; Victory Thoroughbreds Cherokee Country; Thor-Bred Stable’s Drift King; Robert Clay’s Formidable; Repole Stable’s Go Go Shoot; Our Chelsea Stable’s Greenspring; Lindy Redding’s Ravalo; West Point Thoroughbred’s Saratoga Russell; Black Swan Stable’s Sean Avery; Winning Move Stable’s Starforaday; and Repole Stable’s The Roundhouse.

Friday’s feature is the Grade 2, $150,000 Top Flight Handicap for fillies and mares 3-and-up going a mile, with Porte Bonheur, Cuvee Uncorked, Sara Louise, Skylighter, Spritely and Weathered, with Justwhistledixie and What A Pear questionable, according to NYRA stakes coordinator Andrew Byrnes.

The Holiday Fest stakes action continues Saturday with four graded stakes: the Grade 1, $300,000 Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile, the Grade 1, $300,000 Gazelle at 1 1/8th miles for 3-year-old fillies and a pair of Grade 2 contests for 2-year-olds, the Demoiselle, for fillies, and the Remsen, both at 1 1/8th miles.

Likely for the Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile are Marc Keller’s Grade 1 Shadwell Metropolitan Handicap Winner Bribon (FR); Repole Stable’s Driven by Success; Fox Hill Farm’s Grade 1 Vosburgh winner Kodiak Kowboy; Michael B. Tabor’s Grade 2 Tom Fool Handicap winner Munnings; and Godolphin Stable’s Vineyard Haven, possibly as part of an entry with stablemate Pyro. Phipps Stable’s Vacation and Frank Alesia’s Euroglide are questionable.

Six are expected in the Gazelle including Eurowest Bloodstock’s Devil by Design; Godolphin Stable’s Flashing; Kaleem Shah’s Me Love; Homewrecker Racing’s Multipass; IEAH Stable’s 2008 Juvenile Filly Champion Stardom Bound, and Jerry Jamgotchian’s Sweet and Flawless, with Justwhistledixie, Milwaukee Appeal and Peach Brew questionable.

Byrnes said Kingfield Stables’ Nashua winner Buddy’s Saint was probable for the Remsen, along with Fudge Truffle, Grand Rapport, Homeboykris and Peppi Knows. Sleepy Hollow winner Fenway Faithful, Jackson Bend, Super Saver and Turf Melody are considered questionable.

Byrnes added that Fuzzy Britches, In the Rough, Profiteroles, Protesting, Tizahit and Oh Diane are probable for the Demoiselle.