Fille d’Esprit, a seven-year-old Great Notion mare, was once a $10,000 claim for Robb and co-owner Carl Iannotta’s C J I Phoenix Group. All she’s done since then is win 13 times and earn the lion’s share of her $777,000 bankroll. Oh, and win six stakes while being Grade 3-placed twice.

She arrives off a win in allowance company last out, which followed a seven-month break.

“She’s doing good,” Robb said. “I mean, I got lucky enough to get a prep under her the other day, and she won, so that’s going to help.”

Robb said Fille d’Esprit’s somewhat lengthy hiatus wasn’t any major issue. Rather, as is often the case, it resulted from an accumulation of minor dings and dents. A cut. A decision to give her some time. A minor injury setting her back.

“It’s just been a long road getting her back,” Robb said.

Robb said he believes his mare got what she needed out of the prep race, which amounted to an easy win against a short field. And though the Distaff is no easy spot – it’s probably the highest-quality race on the card – he said he’s confident going in.

“If Fille runs her race, she’s beaten all of them many times before,” he said.

Regular pilot Xavier Perez has the mount, as he has for her last 15 consecutive starts.

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Fille d’Esprit is the morning line favorite, but bettors with a wandering eye will find plenty of ways to cast their glances. Trainer Ham Smith will send out a formidable duo of last out Timonium Distaff winner Response Time (7-2) and Luna Belle (5-2). The four-year-old Luna Belle hasn’t run since an 11^th-place finish in the 2022 Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan, some 17 months ago. That loss snapped a five-stake win streak she had fashioned.

Also on hand are last year’s champion Maryland-bred juvenile filly Malibu Moonshine (12-1), who won two juvenile stakes but has made only two starts this year; and Malibu Beauty (9-2), who somewhat quietly has constructed a bankroll of nearly $550,000, including a pair of second-place finishes in this event.

If the Distaff is the best race on the card, the most wide-open might be the six-furlong Nursery for two-year-olds. It’s drawn a field of 12, and Catahoula Moon, whom Robb trains for Super C Racing, is the lukewarm – frankly, almost chilly – morning line favorite at 4-1.

A son of Golden Lad, Catahoula Moon finished fourth and then third in his first two outings before graduating by four lengths September 4 at Timonium. In his most recent start, September 24, he finished a good second behind 3-10 favorite Boy Magic.

“He’s just a really, really big horse,” Robb said of Catahoula Moon. “It took him a few races to put it together, but he’s coming into it just right.”

Perez also has the mount on Catahoula Moon.

And then there’s Bigdaddysboy and Dance for Green, both also in the Nursery. And Al Loves Josie in the Sprint. Remember Me in the Lassie. Don’t Tell Deren in the first race starter. A whole battalion of Robb-trained runners.

Robb has won nine Maryland Million races in his career, third most all time. The only trainers with more are the recently-retired Dale Capuano with 15 and King Leatherbury and Michael Trombetta, with three each. Trombetta has five runners entered on Saturday, and there’s a decent shot there will be some shuffling in the Maryland Million trainer ranks before day’s end.