Game on Dude, a leading contender for Horse of the Year, heads a field of nine in Saturday's $250,000 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita. The 1 1/8-mile event is one of five Grade 1 stakes on a dynamite program that serves as a precursor to the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita on November 2-3.

All five stakes have been renamed this year. Game on Dude, a son of Awesome Again, posted a half-length score in the race formerly known as the Goodwood 12 months ago, and the Bob Baffert-trained gelding will bring a four-for-four mark at the Arcadia, California, track into Saturday's title defense, including a victory in last year's Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap. He posted convincing wins in the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup, Grade 2 San Antonio and Grade 2 Californian earlier this season, and exits a respectable runner-up in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic over a Del Mar Polytrack that probably isn't his best surface.

Rail Trip will look to make an impact following a fourth in the Pacific Classic. A Grade 1 winner in 2009, the gelding dropped eight straight starts before capturing the Grade 2 San Diego two back. Jose Valdivia Jr. rides for trainer Ron Ellis. Nonios will make his first start against elders in the Awesome Again. Winner of the Grade 3 Affirmed this summer in his stakes bow, the Jerry Hollendorfer-trained sophomore finished second in both the Grade 2 Swaps and Grade 1 Haskell Invitational before a disappointing fifth in the Grade 1 Travers most recently. Martin Pedroza, who was up for both the Affirmed and Swaps, will re-take the mount.

Include Me Out, the leading distaffer in California this year, tops a field of nine fillies and mares in the $250,000 Zenyatta Stakes (formerly the Lady's Secret) at 1 1/16 miles. The John Sadler-trained filly is four-for-five in 2012, compiling wins in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch, Grade 1 Santa Margarita, Grade 2 Marjorie Everett and Grade 2 La Canada, and her lone setback was a runner-up in the Grade 1 Vanity two starts back. The four-year-old will look to enhance her championship credentials with a returning Joe Talamo.

The $250,000 Rodeo Drive (formerly the Yellow Ribbon) will feature a near-capacity field of 13 females at 1 1/4 miles on turf, and Marketing Mix is the likely favorite in her first California appearance. Conditioned by Tom Proctor, the four-year-old daughter of Medaglia d'Oro reeled off consecutive Grade 2 wins prior to her fast-finishing second, beaten only a head, in the Grade 1 Beverly D. Stakes at Arlington Park on August 18. She will be re-united with Garrett Gomez, who piloted her runner-up finish in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup last fall.

Other contenders include City to City, winner of the Grade 2 John C. Mabee two starts back; Grade 1 vixens Cambina and Nereid; and Let's Go Cheyenne, who exits a 5 3/4-length romp in her stakes debut.

Capo Bastone captured his career bow, winning an August 4 maiden special weight at Del Mar, before recording a fourth as the second choice in the Futurity. Victor Espinoza rides for Sadler. Baffert will be represented by three contestants: Carving exits a win in the C.B. Afflerbaugh Stakes at Fairplex for the Hall of Famer; Power Broker will go turf to dirt following a neck second in the Oak Tree Juvenile Turf Stakes; and Den's Legacy enters off a maiden tally at Del Mar. Oak Tree Juvenile Turf winner Dry Summer and Futurity sixth-place finisher Gabriel Charles are also entered.

The Chandelier features a probable heavy favorite in the unbeaten Executiveprivilege, a three-time stakes winner so far for Baffert. After defeating maiden special weight rivals in late June, the First Samurai filly proceeded to capture the Landaluce Stakes, Grade 3 Sorrento and Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante. Executiveprivilege can establish herself as the one to beat in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies with an impressive victory Saturday.