SARATOGA SPRINGS — Forced into Plan B, Red Giant came up with his “A” game.

The 4-year-old Giant’s Causeway colt returned to the races in grand style, winning the Grade II Fourstardave Handicap Sunday at Saratoga Race Course.

Given an ideal trip from meet-leading rider John Velazquez, Red Giant found room in deep stretch and split horses with a frantic late surge to hit the wire a neck in front of long shot Stalingrad.

Stalingrad was a length in front of 5-2 second choice Thorn Song. Danak, the 2-1 favorite, was pulled up in the stretch and eased to the wire, and vanned off the track.

It was the first race in 10 months for Red Giant, who trainer Todd Pletcher had entered in an allowance race earlier in the meet that didn’t fill.

“We nominated him to this as a backup plan,” Pletcher said. “Sometimes, you get lucky.”

Winner of the Grade II Virginia Derby last summer, Red Giant ran 11⁄16 miles in 1:41.93 on a Mellon Turf Course listed as yielding after a late-afternoon downpour a half-hour before the race.

“I didn’t know what it would do,” Pletcher said of the rain. “It didn’t seem like it was enough. Sometimes when it rains like that, it kind of leaves it cut on top a little bit, but he seemed to handle it real well. He’s a real quality horse. He handles about any kind of grass.”

Breaking from the far inside, Velazquez was able to save ground with Red Giant for more than five furlongs, steadily gaining on pace­setter Inca King, who led through fractions of :23.95, :47.81 and 1:11.95.

As Inca King dug in, Stalingrad came up on the outside to take over the top spot entering the stretch, with Red Giant in close pursuit.

“He broke sharp, and I just sat against him,” Velazquez said. It was his third win of the day and 16th for the meet, third in a graded stakes and second in as many days.

“I just bided my time with him, and tried to follow [Stalingrad] that was moving in front of me. After that, I was just hoping to get some sort of daylight.”

It took a while, but the opening finally appeared nearing the eighth pole, when Velazquez shifted three-wide. From there, he gradually reeled in Stalingrad for his fifth win in 11 career starts.

“He shot through there, and it was all over,” Velazquez said.

“He got a beautiful trip from the inside post,” Pletcher said. “It was just kind of a matter of waiting for a seam and a spot to go. When he found it, he kicked.”

Owned by Peachtree Stable, Red Giant was first or second in seven of eight starts in 2007, including four wins and a runner-up finish to Shamdinan in the Grade I Secretariat.

“He had an ankle issue that flared up on him last year, and we just gave him plenty of time, shooting for a summer campaign,” Pletcher said.

“There’s no question he’s a quality horse. We weren’t concerned about him being good enough for a spot like this. The only concern

was that he hasn’t run in quite a while. He’s a really, really nice horse.”

Danak, trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, was bet down to

favoritism by a T-shirt giveaway crowd of 56,761. Steadied in traffic early while running near the back of the pack, he gave way on the turn and was pulled up by jockey Rajiv Maragh.

“He stumbled really bad turning for home,” Maragh said. “He stepped on a bad part of the racetrack, and I didn’t want to take any chances.

“I was able to save some ground, but when I was about to make my move, that’s when he took a bad step. It’s just bad luck.”

McLaughlin said the preliminary report on Danak is positive.

“He grabbed a shoe off, and was bleeding from his left front and left hind,” he said. “Rajiv pulled him up, luckily. He’ll be fine.”