SARATOGA SPRINGS — When the New York Racing Association moved the Grade I Woodward from Belmont Park to Saratoga Race Course in 2006, the idea was to add some punch to what had been an otherwise ordinary closing weekend.

This year, NYRA scored a knockout.

Early this evening, 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin will make his eagerly anticipated return to racing in the $500,000 Woodward.

Carded as the 10th of 11 races, the 11⁄8-mile Woodward has a scheduled post time of 5:45 p.m. It will be part of a live 90-minute broadcast on MSG that begins at 4:30.

“Horses like him that are as intelligent as he is, there’s no surprises here. He knows what’s getting ready to happen,” Scott Blasi, top assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen, said Friday morning.

“To win a race like this in Saratoga, with so much history and where racing is so celebrated as a place for six weeks, it’s a great opportunity for us.”

The Woodward marks the first time in a decade that a reigning Horse of the Year has run at Saratoga. Favorite Trick earned the honor as an undefeated

2-year-old in 1997; he came back to win the Jim Dandy and run fifth in the King’s Bishop in 1998.

“It’s just very, very exciting,” NYRA president and CEO Charlie Hayward said. “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to host him. It’s going to be a great day of racing.”

Today marks Curlin’s first start since the 4-year-old son of Smart Strike ran second to Red Rocks in the Grade I Man o’ War at Belmont on July 12, his grass debut.

He is the 3-5 program favorite in a field of eight that includes graded-stakes winners on dirt and turf from Hall of Famers Nick Zito and Bobby Frankel, as well as six-time Saratoga training champion and four-time defending Eclipse Award winner Todd Pletcher.

Zito sends out multiple graded- stakes winner Wanderin Boy; Frankel entered Out of Control, who has two stakes wins on grass; and Pletcher will saddle A.P. Arrow.

“He’s coming into this race in great form,” Blasi said, “but you don’t take anything for granted. We’ve got to show up and do our job. He’s got to run his race.

“There’s some horses in

there that have some very good numbers, that’s why they’re in there. These guys don’t enter horses just to be in there.”

Curlin will break from post five under regular rider Robby Albarado, looking to add the Woodward to wins in the $6 million Dubai World Cup and Grade I Stephen Foster this year.

It wasn’t until Aug. 5 that majority owner Jess Jackson announced his intention to run in the Woodward, whose $300,000 winner’s share would also push Curlin’s career earnings to $9,796,800 and past Skip Away into second place on the all-time list, trailing only Cigar’s $9,999,815.

“I know we’d like to pursue this earnings record with him. That’s definitely one of our goals, and Mr. Jackson’s goals,” Blasi said. “The thing with Curlin is, you have so many options with him and various routes to go. I think that’s why we never ruled anything out. This race fits into his schedule great this year.”

Other than the horse himself, there is no one who knows Curlin’s schedule better than Blasi, a Kansas native who is entrusted with his full-time care as Asmussen splits his time between a nationwide stable.

“He’s got his boundaries, and I think you learn to respect them,” Blasi said. “He’s very respectful of you when you’re ready to do something. A horse that big, we’ve got to have some respect for him and he’s got to have some respect for us. When he’s in his stall, after feed time, after 11 o’clock, that’s his house and I reckon you stay out of there.

“We spend a lot of time together. He’s one of the greatest professional athletes of his kind. I don’t think we’ve seen anything like him for 10 or 15 years.”

Looking to spoil the Curlin party is meet-leading trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, who brings

Divine Park back three months after winning the Grade I Met Mile at Belmont.

Owned by James Barry, Divine Park is

6-for-8 lifetime with three consecutive wins, including the Grade III Westchester. His only losses came over the Santa Anita polytrack last winter off an eight-month layoff, and his 2008 debut, where he broke through the gate at

Laurel Park.

“Curlin is one of the best horses in the world at this distance and on this surface, and we’re looking forward to taking him on,” McLaughlin said. “It’s a tough chore against Curlin. He’s one of the best in the game, but we feel like we have a decent chance to upset him. If we have an A-plus day and he has a subpar day, then we probably are the most likely to upset him.”

Pletcher, who won this race last year with eventual older male champion Lawyer Ron, will saddle Grade II winner A.P. Arrow, winless since last fall who was eighth of 11 in the Grade I Whitney here July 26.

Pletcher has beaten Curlin with historic filly Rags to Riches in the Belmont Stakes and Any Given Saturday in the Grade I Haskell last year, and was second by a neck with Lawyer Ron in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Curlin came back to romp in the Breeders’ Cup Classic a month later.

“We’ve had some success against him . . . but those were spectacular horses,” Pletcher said. “[A.P. Arrow] is training well, and I suppose an inside post is a bit of an advantage going into the first turn away, to be able to save some ground, but we’re not predicting any historical upsets or anything.

“Two scenarios have to happen for him to get beat. One is he has to have a little bit of an off day and, two, someone has to have a spectacular race of a lifetime; at least, that’s the way it looks on paper.”