While Saturday marks the 33rd running of the Grade 1, $600,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational, it will also mark the first running of the race since its namesake, influential turf writer Joe Hirsch, died in January 2009.

It is fitting that one of New York’s top turf races should honor one of the sport’s top turf writers – the race was renamed for Hirsch following his 2003 retirement – and equally fitting that the 2009 edition has drawn a diverse field of nine talented runners.

Heading the group is Castleton Lyons’ Gio Ponti, current leader of the male turf division. He will try for his fifth consecutive Grade 1 win in what will be his first race longer than 1? miles. The 4-year-old son of Tale of the Cat is unbeaten on grass so far this year and enters the Joe Hirsch off a win in the Arlington Million on August 8. While the distance is new, trainer Christophe Clement does not believe it should pose a problem for the colt.

“He is a horse that can switch on and off,” Clement said. “As long as Ramon [Dominguez, jockey] can keep him switched off the first part of the race, he can finish well.”

It was that late kick that brought Gio Ponti all four of his Grade 1 victories so far this year, including the pair he earned at Belmont Park - the Woodford Reserve Manhattan on June 6 and the 1?-mile Man o’War on July 11, in which the colt raced wide all the way around and still finished nearly two lengths in front.

“A good horse is a good horse,” Clement said. “[Gio Ponti] loves Belmont Park and I’ve always thought that he is a better horse in cooler weather. This is not a handicap, so the weights are the same, which is great. Now, it’s up to him.”

Dominguez and Gio Ponti will break from post position No. 5 as the morning line favorite at 6-5. Listed as part of an entry with Gio Ponti is stablemate Winchester, who finished second to defending Joe Hirsch champion Grand Couturier (GB) in the Grade 2 Bowling Green Handicap here on September 13.

Grand Couturier will attempt his second consecutive win in the Joe Hirsch on Saturday, which he used last year as a launching pad for a run in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf, where he ran eleventh. Prior to winning last month’s Bowling Green, the 6-year-old son of Grand Lodge had registered three straight fifth-place finishes in 2009.

“He’s doing fine,” said Bobby Ribaudo, who trains Grand Couturier for Marc Keller. “He came out of his last race well, but Gio Ponti will be tough. We may get [the softer ground] we like on Saturday and we’ll take any edge we can get.”

Returning to New York is Chicago-based Telling, who upset the Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga Race Course on August 15 at odds of 33-1 during his last visit to the Empire State. He won that race – run at the same 1½-mile distance as the Joe Hirsch – by two lengths, and also has a second and a third-place finish to show for three starts at 12 furlongs.

“He doesn’t have to win again to prove anything to us,” said Telling’s Arlington Park-based trainer, Steve Hobby. “The one thing is, Gio Ponti hasn’t been a mile and half yet and my horse loves it.”

Jockey Javier Castellano, who rode Telling in the Sword Dancer, retains the mount and the pair will break from post position No. 3 at odds of 10-1.

Also figuring to be tough is Patricia Generazio’s Presious Passion, who exits a last-place finish in the Arlington Million after setting the pace for the first three-quarters of a mile. That race was the only disappointing performance by the 6-year-old gelded son of Royal Anthem so far this year, who otherwise has three wins and two second-place finishes from six starts. Presious Passion has three wins from five career starts at 1½ miles.

Completing the field are Interpatation, fourth in the PTHA President’s Cup Stakes at Philadelphia Park on September 19; Al Khali, a 3-year-old Medaglia d’Oro colt who won the Grade 3 Saranac at Saratoga on September 6; Musketier (GER), ninth in the Sword Dancer after running second to Gio Ponti in the Man o’War, and Ready’s Echo, exiting a third-place finish in the Grade 1, seven-furlong Forego on dirt at Saratoga Race Course.