SARATOGA SPRINGS — Most of his days are spent at the sprawling Fair Hill Training Center in

rural Maryland, where Better Talk Now gets turned out in a paddock for 90 minutes each morning.

While it is a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere for the ageless and well-decorated gelding, earned over an eight-year racing career, it is far from retirement.

“People keep asking me about him, and he seems great now,” trainer Graham Motion said Monday morning outside barn 30 on the Saratoga Race Course backstretch.

“He’s really as good as I remember him being. Age doesn’t seem to be a factor, at this point, from what I can see.”

Now 9, Better Talk Now will make his 46th career start in Saturday’s Grade I Sword Dancer Inv­itational, a race he won in 2004.

Motion had Better Talk Now pointed to the Sword Dancer last year, but was forced to scratch him when an old injury flared up the day before the race.

“Hopefully, we get there Saturday,” Motion said. “To win this race again would be extremely gratifying.

“He’s won almost every Grade I in New York apart from the [Turf Classic] in the fall, and to win this race again would be tremendous. I think he would go down as one of the greats, you know?”

A multiple Grade I winner, including the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Turf, Better Talk Now has been on the board in 24 of 45 lifetime starts, with 14 wins and $4,116,288 in earnings.

Winless in four tries this year, his last victory came in the Grade I Manhattan last June at Belmont Park. Fourth in the 2007 BC Turf, Better Talk Now ran third, beaten 21⁄2 lengths, by Red Rocks in the Grade I Man o’ War July 12.

Red Rocks is also pointing to the Sword Dancer. Better Talk Now finished a half-length behind runner-up Curlin, the 2007 Horse of the Year running for the first time on grass.

“I thought he ran very well,”

Motion said. “We had the pace that we wanted. The ground was very firm, and when the ground’s like that, they don’t back up like they do when it’s softer.

“Certainly, with him, everything helps. The soft grass, the pace, all those factors help his cause, because he needs a race to set up for him. If we can get the pace and the soft grass, I think it’ll be perfect.”

With rain in the forecast almost all week, Better Talk Now may find the Mellon Turf Course to his liking. He won’t have the services of stablemate Shake the Bank, who Motion has used in the past to

ensure an honest pace.

“They never invite him,”

Motion said. “I think it’s become less important, to be very honest. He’s much more relaxed than he used to be. When we started using it, he wanted to be pretty keen, and he needed a good pace to be able to settle down.

“He’s much more settled now. I think it’s just old age. He’s mellowed. I think all horses mellow as they get older, just like we do, I guess. I think that’s a good thing. It helps him.”

Better Talk Now has had two solid works at Fair Hill this month for the Sword Dancer, including five furlongs in 1:01.20 over the all-weather surface, fourth fastest of 18 on Aug. 9.

“The last two times he’s worked, I breezed him on his own, which I wouldn’t normally have done in years past,” Motion said. “That’s also kind of a sign of how well he’s doing. Normally, he wouldn’t work that well on his own, whereas now, he’s very push-button, as far as breezing in the morning.

“I can’t say I’ve changed anything significantly with him; maybe just a little bit kinder to him than we used to be as far as the workload.”

Earlier this month at Saratoga, 7-year-old Commentator won the Grade I Whitney three years after doing it for the first time. Further down the backstretch from

Motion is trainer Pat Kelly, whose Evening Attire qualified for the new Breeders’ Cup Marathon at the age of 10.

“How often do you see a horse come back and win these races so many years later?” Motion said. “It doesn’t happen anymore. It’s pretty unique.

“To me, with these old horses, I think they gather more of a following than some of the 3-year-olds who wind up being a flash in the pan; they’re here one year, and gone the next. These guys like Evening Attire and Commentator and my horse, they run year after year and, even if they’re not consistent, it’s hard not to root for them.”