Zayat Stables’ Maimonides, an impressive 11 ½-length maiden debut winner here on August 8th, worked four furlongs over the main track this morning in :46 3/5, handily, with exercise rider Simon Harris aboard. The move was a bullet, the best of 41 works at the distance, and should set up the Vindication colt nicely for the Closing Day feature, the 103rd running of the Grade 1, $250,000 Hopeful for two-year-olds at seven furlongs Monday, Labor Day.

“He went very well,” trainer Bob Baffert said this morning. “He stepped it up today. He broke off behind a horse, took some dirt, zipped around there and galloped out strong.”

Maimonides, named for a Jewish rabbi, physician and philosopher of the Middle Ages, will have to beat James Scatuorchio’s Ready’s Image in the Hopeful. Ready’s Image won the Sanford here Opening Week and is now 3-for-4 lifetime, with his only loss coming over a sloppy track at Churchill Downs. Experience could play a big role in the Hopeful as Ready’s Image has for more seasoning than Maimonides, who has only run once.

“Ready’s Image is going to be tough,” Baffert said. “He’s really a nice horse.”

Baffert will start John Sikura’s More Happy in the Hopeful’s sister race, the Grade 1, $250,000 Spinaway for fillies at seven furlongs on Sunday.

More Happy won the Grade 2 Adirondack here earlier in the meet after breaking her maiden over Polytrack at Del Mar. In the 6 ½-furlong Adirondack, More Happy held a clear lead in midstretch but was all out to hold off A to the Croft as she appeared to be tiring.

“Bejarano (jockey Rafael Bejarano) asked her away from the gate and I told him just to sit on her away from there,” Baffert explained.

Both Maimonides and More Happy are by 2002 juvenile champion Vindication.

“There was a lot of pressure when these horses first came over,” Baffert said. “They seem like they’ve settled in pretty well here.”

Baffert sent out another quick Zayat-owned colt, J Be K, in today’s second race for two-year-old maidens. With jockey Garrett Gomez aboard, J Be K set the track record for 5½ furlongs of 1:03.13 with his 7½-length victory over Mr. Shortcake and Saratoga Seven, who is trained by Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

J Be K broke quickly from the gate and led throughout while running the first quarter in :21.87 and the half-mile in :44.88.

The previous record was held by Secret Gypsy (1:03.26), which was set 13 days ago on August 16. Before then, Mayakovsky held the record of 1:03.32, which he set on July 25, 2001.

“I thought we would break his maiden when we got to Belmont; I didn’t think he would break a track record,” Baffert said. “I figured he could run, but I thought he needed the race He looked good. In the paddock, he was pretty sharp. He had been working well and Garrett loved him.”

For Baffert, J Be K and Maimonides, despite their impressive debuts, are not similar.

“They’re two different types of horses,” Baffert said. “[J Be K] is a big, heavy horse. You can’t judge them until you put all of them in the gate. You learn about them as you run them. I was watching the race with Wayne Lukas and he asked me, ‘Does your horse have any speed?” I said, ‘He’s got a little.’ When [J Be K] broke out of the gate, I said to Wayne, ‘He’s got a lot more speed than I thought he did.’”

Baffert did not indicate specifically where J Be K may appear for his next start.

On Saturday, Baffert will send out Midnight Lute in the Grade 1, $250,000 Forego at seven furlongs. The son of former Baffert trainee Real Quiet has not run since finishing fourth in the Commonwealth Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland April 14th. He has had two throat operations since that race to correct a breathing problem.

Midnight Lute’s only other stakes win came at seven furlongs in the Grade 3 Perryville at Keeneland last year.

Baffert, who has enjoyed his extended stay in Saratoga this summer, plans on having 15 horses stabled at Belmont Park when the 33-day Fall Championship Meet begins on Friday, September 7.

Trainer Todd Pletcher reported this morning that Rags to Riches, the first filly to win the Belmont Stakes in 102 years, has had her temperature drop to normal levels and will likely head back to the track on Thursday.

Pletcher originally planned to work Rags to Riches on Sunday morning, but opted to wait until Monday because the track was wet. When Monday morning came around, Rags to Riches was running a slight temperature and Pletcher decided to keep her in the barn.

“Her temperature is normal, her blood work was normal, she rode under tack this morning and she will go back to the track tomorrow,” Pletcher said. “She’ll probably breeze on Saturday or Sunday, and then I’ll make a decision on whether that’s going to have her ready for the Ruffian, or if I need one more work to have her ready for the Gazelle.”

The missed work last weekend was another setback for Rags to Riches, who missed her last scheduled start of the Belmont Park spring/summer meet when a temperature knocked her out of the Coaching Club American Oaks. The day after the CCA Oaks, Pletcher sent Rags to Riches out for a five-furlong work, but she was pulled up early into the work. Although veterinarians could not find anything wrong with her, the time she missed training removed her from consideration for the Grade 1 Alabama on August 19th.

Rags to Riches’ next start will either be in the Grade 1, $300,000 Ruffian at Belmont September 8th against older horses or the Grade 1, $250,000 Gazelle for three-year-old fillies September 15th.

Pletcher called Rags to Riches “50-50” to run in the Ruffian. If she does not make that race, then she would almost certainly run in the Gazelle, barring another setback.

Of more immediate concern to Pletcher is the Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward here on Saturday, where he will send out Lawyer Ron, who set a track record in the Grade 1, nine-furlong Whitney (1:46.64), and Magna Graduate, who was a non-threatening sixth in the Whitney.

“I think Magna Graduate ran a decent race in the Whitney,” Pletcher said. “Unfortunately, he was stuck down inside the whole way, which he really doesn’t like, and then he had to check at the eighth pole, which cost him a placing.

“Obviously, we’d love to see Lawyer Ron do as well as he did last time. The horse is more cooperative than he once was, but I don’t know that in every scenario he’d relax as well as he did the other day. He benefited from the outside post and being in the clear.”

Sanford winner Ready’s Image breezed five furlongs Monday morning in 1:01 3/5, and will be the favorite in Monday’s Grade 1 Hopeful.

“Ready’s Image has been training very well and I expect him to run well,” Pletcher said.

In Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinaway, Pletcher will saddle Derrick Smith’s Passion who finished third behind More Happy in the Adirondack, only beaten 1 ½ lengths after a troubled start.

“I think she can improve off her last race,” Pletcher said.