SARATOGA SPRINGS — In his short six-race career, the only thing to match Ravel’s talent has been his bad luck.

A well-regarded son of 2000 Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus, Ravel was on the Triple Crown trail last winter before being sidelined with a leg fracture.

Three races into his comeback, Ravel was nearly blinded when struck in the eye by what was believed to be a piece of Santa Anita’s synthetic track during a race in January.

Seven months later, Ravel is back. Again.

Trained by Todd Pletcher for owners

Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith, Ravel makes his return today at Saratoga Race Course.

Coupled with Sam P., co-owned by Schen­ectady native Don Lucarelli and Saratoga Springs resident Jack Wolf, Ravel is entered in the third race, a $72,000 optional claiming allowance at nine furlongs on the main track.

Also in the field are Grade III winner Temporary Saint, the program favorite; Loose Leaf, sixth in Travers after winning the Lemon Drop Kid at Saratoga last summer; Fearless Vision, third by a neck in the 2007 Grade II Peter Pan; and Extreme Supreme, who is 2-for-3 over the track.

“Typical Saratoga. You’ve got horses running in there that are coming out of graded stakes,” Pletcher said Thursday morning. “It’s not an easy spot by any means, and it’s a lot to ask of a horse to run a mile and an eighth off a long layoff on the dirt.

“But he’s not a sprinter, and sprinting would be just giving him a race. Hopefully, we’ve done enough with him to have him fit, and he’ll perform well and move forward for having that race.”

Ravel has worked steadily for his return, including a five-furlong breeze on Sunday in 1:00.64 in company with Canadian classic winner Harlem Rocker, who is being pointed to the $1 million Travers Aug. 23.

Today will be just his second race over conventional dirt. The last was his biggest win, the Grade III Sham Stakes last February which stamped him as a serious Kentucky Derby contender. He ran a career-high 104 Beyer Speed Figure, before Santa Anita converted to synthetics.

A fracture of the left front cannon bone kept him away from the races until he won a second-level allowance last fall at Keeneland. From there, he closed his 3-year-old season by running a closing fourth, beaten less than five lengths, by Heatseeker in the Grade III Native Diver at Hollywood Park.

“We were a little bit disappointed after the race at Hollywood,” Pletcher said, “but in retrospect, he was beaten [43⁄4] lengths to Heatseeker, who was maybe the best older horse in the country at the time, and certainly on the synthetic surfaces.

“Obviously, he had a major excuse in his last race, with the whole eye situation. He got hit, we assume, with a little piece of the asphalt from the track. We were lucky that we didn’t lose his eye.”

Ravel still managed to rally for fourth in the Grade II San Fernando, but spent six weeks in recovery and another 45 days at Ashford Farm in Kentucky before getting back in training.

“He just got a cloud in his eye. We were on top of it from literally the day after the race, but we just couldn’t get it healed up,” Pletcher said. “We had a long battle trying to save it, and fortunately we were able to, but he missed a lot of time because of it.

“The cloud just sort of diminished. He still has it in there, but it’s not as bad. The cloud will never go away, but his vision is good.”

Pletcher is among those who wonders what may have been with Ravel, who was part of one of the best sophomore classes in recent memory that included Curlin, Street Sense, Hard Spun and Any Given Saturday, among others.

“We felt like, as a 3-year-old, that he was as good as any of them in that crop,” Pletcher said. “This is a year and a half later, and he needs to go out there and prove it.”

On Thursday, Sam P. was also entered in the $110,000 Duke of Magenta, an overnight stakes at 13⁄16 miles that will be run as the 10th of 11 races on Saturday.

Sam P. broke his maiden at Saratoga in his lone start here in August 2006. He ran into Curlin in the Grade I Stephen Foster last time out.

“The horse is doing real well,” Wolf said. “We just need a race where this horse can win.”