Portmagee tries to continue ascent in Jill Jellison Memorial Dash

The brief Suffolk Downs meet begins Saturday with two one-turn stakes races.

Headlining the card is the $75,000 Jill Jellison Memorial Dash, a roughly five-furlong turf sprint for fillies and mares ages 3 and up who have never won a graded stakes race. Leading the nine-horse field is Portmagee, who has done an admirable job climbing up the class ladder in her six career starts.

The front-running Hard Spun filly’s most recent effort was a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Intercontinental Stakes on June 8 at Belmont, where she took an early lead but was caught in the final strides to finish three-quarters of a length behind a hard-closing Mississippi Delta.

That race followed a victory in the License Fee Stakes over six furlongs on the Belmont turf on April 30, when Portmagee led at every point of call. She most recently breezed four furlongs over the Belmont main track June 29, stopping the clock in 49.20 seconds.

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Angel Arroyo picks up the mount aboard Portmagee for owner Waterville Lake Stable and trainer Christophe Clement.

D’boldest comes into the race as the most battle-tested entrant both at the track and the distance. The D’wildcat mare is the only horse in the race with a win over the Suffolk turf, having taken an allowance at about five furlongs in 2014. She has won half of her 12 starts at five furlongs on the grass, but her two races in stakes company resulted in off-the-board finishes.

D’boldest enters the Jellison off a two-month layoff, having most recently finished sixth in a five-furlong optional claimer on the main track at Evangeline on April 28. Two starts ago on Feb. 27, the mare came off a yearlong layoff to win a five-furlong allowance on the turf at Sam Houston by a driving 3 1/4 lengths. She last showed up on the work tab June 25 at the Churchill Downs Training Center, going five furlongs in a bullet 1:00.20.

Jose Camejo trains D’boldest for owner Antonia Noonan. Abel Lezcano has the mount.

◗ Earlier in the day, a field of seven will contest the $50,000 African Prince Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for Massachusetts-bred 3-year-olds.

The statebred platoon’s leader from last year, Saint Alfred, will again head the class. The Dublin gelding won last year’s Norman Hall Stakes for Massachusetts-bred juveniles at Finger Lakes, defeating two of the rivals he will meet Saturday.

Saint Alfred has struggled against older foes, finishing seventh in two open Finger Lakes allowances, first at six furlongs and most recently at a mile and 40 yards on June 24.

Tammi Piermarini has the mount for owner Joseph DiRico and trainer Karl Grusmark.