Royal Delta capped off a championship campaign under the lights in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic (Patrick Tyrrell/Horsephotos.com)

Despite carrying purse money of only $100,000, the field for Saturday's Grade 3 Sabin at Gulfstream Park couldn't have turned out much better. The 1 1/16-mile event features the return to action of two of racing's top fillies from last season, the three-year-old champion Royal Delta and Grade 1 winner Awesome Maria, who won all of her 2011 starts in an abbreviated campaign. They will face three others, including Grade 3 winner Groupie Doll.

Royal Delta, who cemented championship honors with a 2 1/2-length score in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic in November, will use the Sabin as a stepping-stone for the Group 1, $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 31. Days after her Breeders' Cup triumph, the filly went through the sales ring at Keeneland November and brought $8.5 million from Benjamin Leon, who operates Besilu Stables. Leon eventually allowed trainer Bill Mott to resume training the filly, who also captured the Grade 1 Alabama and Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan last season for the late Saud bin Khaled's Palides Investments.

Though Royal Delta's Payson Park worktab includes two bullets in the past several weeks, the Sabin is most certainly a means to an end. The filly appeared to show a pattern last year of using some races, such as the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks and Grade 1 Beldame, as stepping stones toward more lucrative goals. With a $10 million race awaiting her at the end of March, it would not be a complete surprise to see a less-than-fully cranked Royal Delta on Saturday.

Awesome Maria won the 2011 Rampart by eight lengths in her last race at Gulfstream (Adam Coglianese Photography)

"She's training exceptionally well," Pletcher said. "We've been a little frustrated because she's been ready to run for a little while. We tried to get her in an allowance race about a month ago which we didn't get to go. We've kind of landed in a difficult situation running off a long layoff in a tough race, but she's trained very well, she likes this track, so we're optimistic. She's a top class filly at a mile and a sixteenth and so we'll hope for the best."

Jose Lezcano and John Velazquez, the regular riders for Royal Delta and Awesome Maria, respectively, are back aboard their famous mounts, who will each carry 123 pounds.

Getting a mere two-pound concession from the heavyweights is Groupie Doll, who beat her elders in the Grade 3 Gardenia at Ellis Park last August in only her fourth career start. Later a close second in the Grade 2 Raven Run, Groupie Doll has already run twice at the current Gulfstream meet. After impressively knocking out her third allowance condition over one mile on December 22, the Buff Bradley trainee took on the boys in a fourth-level allowance on January 27 and finished a game second to Grade 1 veteran Boys at Tosconova.

The Sabin filler includes Ghostly Darkness, a first-level allowance winner at Laurel when last seen in November, and Canadian Mistress, who was demoted from first to second against third-level allowances foes in her last start.

Perfect Shirl (middle) sprung a big upset in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (Breeders' Cup Ltd.)

Winless since taking the Grade 2 Lake George in July 2010, Perfect Shirl was understandably overlooked in last November's Filly & Mare Turf at 27-1. However, the Roger Attfield trainee made a successful wide bid to defeat a world-class field that included champion Stacelita. Perfect Shirl was an intended starter in the Group 1 Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini, South America's most important race, on December 17, but plans were scuttled when transportation to Buenos Aires was repeatedly delayed. The five-year-old resumed serious training at Payson in late January.

The leading contenders to upstage the Breeders' Cup heroine are Casablanca Smile and Keertana. Casablanca Smile, a former leading filly in her native Chile, returned from an 11-month absence on December 2 to take the Grade 3 La Prevoyante Handicap in wire-to-wire fashion for trainer Shug McGaughey. The six-year-old has won or placed in all six stakes appearances in the U.S.

Multiple Grade 3 winner Keertana won The Very One by a half-length last season, and later won the Grade 3 Bewitch and the Grade 3 Louisville Handicap, the latter versus males. She kicked off 2012 with a third in the Grade 3 Endeavour at Tampa Bay Downs on February 4.