ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Love to Shop and A Game will clash again in Saturday’s Grade 3, $135,000 Bessarabian, a wide-open seven-furlong stakes that attracted 14 fillies and mares. Love to Shop is arguably the one to beat in her third race off an extended layoff. She rallied four wide from seventh to lose a nail-biter to A Game in the Grade 3 Ontario Fashion, a six-furlong Tapeta sprint Oct. 12. “She looked like a winner, but A Game came up inside,” trainer Kevin Attard recalled. “I don’t know if she had seen her coming. It almost looked like Love to Shop was a winner before and after the wire. She’s obviously a nice horse. She ran well in the race last year. I’m looking forward to a big effort out of her.” Justin Stein inherits the mount on Love to Shop from the sidelined Emma-Jayne Wilson. He rode her to a runner-up finish in last year’s Bessarabian behind Loyalty, who was crowned 2023 Canadian champion female sprinter. A Game is sent out by Loyalty’s trainer, Josie Carroll. After winning a conditioned allowance/optional claimer off a long break Sept. 21, the Distorted Humor mare captured her first stakes at 48-1 in the Ontario Fashion under hot stakes rider Fraser Aebly. :: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!  “We broke well and got a nice trip in the third flight,” Aebly said. “Coming around the turn, I found myself creeping up. I was waiting for a hole and we got lucky and found one up the inside. I was sitting on a lot of horse and she tried so hard for me. She was fighting the whole way and so was I.” Among the others entered are shippers Gal in a Rush and Sunday Shoes, along with Queen Macha and Owen’s Tour Guide. Gal in a Rush, based in New York with trainer Christophe Clement, won the Grade 3 Hendrie here in July from far off the pace before a neck loss as the favorite in the Grade 3 Seaway. She was a flat third most recently in another Tapeta sprint, the Grade 2 Presque Isle Masters. Sunday Shoes, a Kentucky invader trained by Wesley Ward, was a non-threatening fifth in the Presque Isle Masters after winning the local prep for that 6 1/2-furlong contest. Queen Macha ran third in back-to-back sprint stakes on different surfaces in August before failing to fire during a wide trip most recently in the Grade 2 Dance Smartly. “She is very good now, physically, and at this point in her career, I think the seven-eighths on the synthetic is pretty much the perfect scenario for her,” trainer Marty Drexler said. “It still isn’t an easy spot for her to run in, but I know she is going to like it.” Owen’s Tour Guide was a front-running second in the Hendrie before tailing off in August. She beat Ontario-breds in her first stakes score in the Sept. 21 Zadracarta on the inner turf, and is coming off a fifth in the Ontario Fashion. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.