Salvator Mile, Monmouth Park. Nice regional two-turn dirt mile for your listed or Grade 3 types. Not the race you’d ever expect to draw an internationally elite dirt horse, much less one shipping from California. But here we are. Hot Rod Charlie arrived Tuesday at Monmouth from trainer Doug O’Neill’s base at Santa Anita and will be an odds-on favorite to beat six rivals in the Grade 3, $150,000 Salvator Mile, the last of 14 races Saturday. First post for the program is set for 12:15 p.m. Eastern with the Salvator scheduled for 6:15. Preceding it are the Pegasus, a nominal prep for the Haskell Invitational, and two Grade 3 turf routes, the Eatontown for fillies and mares and the Monmouth Stakes for older horses, that drew deep, playable fields. Hot Rod Charlie’s last start came March 26 at Meydan Racecourse, where he slogged inside through a deep, laboring surface to grind out a second-place finish behind Country Grammer in the $12 million Dubai World Cup. One of the leading 3-year-olds of 2021, when he earned more than $2.1 million, Hot Rod Charlie spent about two months in Dubai, winning a World Cup prep there in early February. Back home in California, he had his first post-Dubai work May 14 and, O’Neill said, has come back from the Middle East strong. “The horses we’ve sent tend to really do well mentally there. Hot Rod Charlie, like many we’ve taken there, came back in great shape,” O’Neill said. :: Get ready for Saratoga and Del Mar with a Quarterly subscription to DRF Past Performances O’Neill and the managing partners in Hot Rod Charlie’s ownership group have one race circled on their calendar: The Breeders’ Cup Classic. A comeback run in the Stephen Foster was considered, but connections decided a shorter, softer spot held more appeal. “Couple works ago, Hot Rod Charlie put in an amazing three-quarters work at Santa Anita, galloped out great, and cooled out quickly. The Salvator Mile works out perfectly as a way to get him back rolling. It’s not an easy spot by any means but we thought it would be lighter than the Stephen Foster,” said O’Neill. Hot Rod Charlie’s previous Monmouth trip ended badly. He finished first in the 2021 Haskell but was disqualified to last for interfering with late Midnight Bourbon, who clipped heels and unseated his jockey. Mike Smith picks up the mount on Hot Rod Charlie with regular rider Flavien Prat, O’Neill said, committed to riding Masen on Saturday in the Poker at Belmont Park. Smith has worked Hot Rod Charlie several times, O’Neill said. The pair break from post 3 and could be the speed of the race. The most likely upset candidate is Mind Control, who ran below form May 7 while racing wide in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes but beat the highly capable Silver State in his last two-turn start, the $200,000 Parx Dirt Mile last September. The most interesting entrant – the favorite notwithstanding – is Shirl’s Speight, a Grade 1 winner on turf who tries dirt for the second time. His lone previous dirt start came at a six-furlong trip short of his best, and owner-breeder Chuck Fipke “would like to see this horse become a stakes winner on dirt,” said trainer Roger Attfield. “He works exceptionally well on dirt, both at Woodbine and at Payson Park. I thought this would be a good spot to try it. I didn’t expect it to come up quite as tough as it has.” :: Bet the races on DRF Bets! Sign up with code WINNING to get a $250 Deposit Match, $10 Free Bet, and FREE DRF Formulator. Pegasus Stakes There’s no rain forecast Saturday for Monmouth, which probably means Dash Attack isn’t winning the $150,000 Pegasus Stakes for 3-year-olds over 1 1/16 miles on dirt. Dash Attack won the $100,000 Long Branch on May 14 over a sloppy Monmouth track, making him 3 for 3 in wet track starts. On dry dirt, Dash Attack has gone 3-0-0-0, and while he likely is more capable than that record reflects, Electability and Home Brew appear to be the key players in the nine-horse Pegasus. Trained by Chad Brown, who has horses for all four Saturday stakes at Monmouth, Electability vied for the early lead in the May 14 Peter Pan at Belmont before fading steadily to finish third, beaten about 10 lengths by We the People, a superior horse to anything Electability faces Saturday. Home Brew’s trainer, Brad Cox, won the 2021 Pegasus with Mandaloun, and while Home Brew is nowhere near that class, his last-start win in the $150,000 Oaklawn Stakes puts him in win contention.