Trainers work horses at different times for different reasons. Early morning, cover of darkness, trying to slip past the clockers and keep a lid on potential talent or a mask on potential problems. First set after the break, track safest, freshly harrowed. After dirt training, when the turf course and steeplechase jumps are open. Most trainers don't like to work a horse if the track comes up heavy, muddy, or sloppy. That's when things go wrong, when one misstep can yield fatal repercussions. It's been that way here at Saratoga for the past few days, trainers keeping horses in the barn or sending them for cautious gallops around the oval instead of all-out rumbles down the stretch. Thanks, summer showers. Not really. It's not a pleasant juggling act. You can only push a work off so long, can only work a certain number of days before a race. You don't want your runner to be tearing down the barn, don't want to take off too much of the edge. But you can't control the weather. With the $1 million Shadwell Travers on the line, top runners here have been getting in their final moves -- or at least trying. Quality Road, supposed to work on Sunday for trainer Todd Pletcher, held off until today to get five furlongs in :59.68 under jockey John Velazquez. Bill Mott checked both the main and Oklahoma tracks aboard his stable pony this morning and postponed Hold Me Back's move until tomorrow. Mine That Bird goes over the main track then as well. "We baby our horses," Mott said. "I think the one difference comes with Turf horses, and I've made the mistake here already this meet. If you work them too close to the race, you might wind them up and get them on the bridle too much. You can buzz them up a little too much before the race; you're better off working them a little further out." With a cloud-free Monday to dry out the oval, no one seemed overly concerned about the slight delays. It doesn't really matter from one day to the next, a 24-hour delay won't make or break these boys. And as long as skies remain sunny, Travers week 2009 is off to a fine start.