Arlington chairman Richard Duchossois recently acquired a French 4-year-old filly named Marypop, with her connections hopeful that she has enough quality to merit a start in the Grade 1 Beverly D. Stakes in August.

Marypop won a listed stakes in her 2016 debut and came back to capture the Group 3 Priz Allez France over 1 1/4 miles on April 28 at Chantilly. She’s currently in quarantine at Arlington but soon will move across the backstretch and into the barn of trainer Mike Stidham.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – From Jan. 1 through May 1 last year, jockey Jose Valdivia Jr. rode 92 races and won three of them. Four months, three winners – that is not a great place to be for a 40-year-old journeyman rider, especially considering that Valdivia’s cold spell in south Florida continued into April even after the big-name riders had left Gulfstream Park for summer quarters.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Private Zone, a three-time Grade 1 winner and an earner of $2.9 million, is targeting the Grade 2, $250,000 True North on June 10 for his seasonal debut, trainer Brian Lynch said Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning, Private Zone was credited with a five-furlong work in 59.77 seconds over the Belmont main track, his first local work since shipping here two weeks ago.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Like most horses, Recepta has been no match for the champion Tepin. Fortunately for her connections, Tepin will not be among the seven rivals Recepta will meet in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Beaugay Stakes at Belmont Park.

Recepta won the De La Rose at Saratoga and the Grade 3 Noble Damsel at Belmont last fall. Since then, she has gone winless in three starts, though two came against Tepin, and the other she lost by a head to Stormy Lucy in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar.

Recepta finished fifth to Tepin in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley last month at Keeneland.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Cavorting, a Grade 1-winning sprinter last year at age 3, will try to stretch out to a mile in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Ruffian Stakes at Belmont.

In races at seven furlongs or shorter, Cavorting is 5-1-1 from eight starts. She is 0 for 2 at a mile, though trainer Kiaran McLaughlin believes there were legitimate excuses in both races.

Cavorting, who is 2 for 3 at Belmont, will break from the rail with new rider Javier Castellano aboard. Castellano replaces Irad Ortiz Jr., who had ridden Cavorting in all 10 of her previous starts.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown has one-third of the nine-horse field for Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Man o’ War Stakes at Belmont Park, as he entered Wake Forest, Money Multiplier, and Morandi in the 1 3/8-mile race on turf.

Wake Forest might be favored. He was beaten just a head by Kaigun in the Grade 2 Pan American at Gulfstream Park, his first start since last August’s Arlington Million. Wake Forest will break from post 9 under John Velazquez.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Though some may be using Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes as a stepping-stone to the Belmont Stakes, Unified is simply using it as the third race of his career.

An impressive winner of his first two starts, Unified will try to stretch his speed to 1 1/8 miles against seven rivals in the Peter Pan, one of four graded stakes on Saturday’s 11-race card.

Texas Mile winner Great Minds will be shooting for his fourth consecutive victory when he makes his next start, but whether it will come at Lone Star Park or Evangeline Downs is to be determined, trainer Al Stall Jr. said Monday.

Stall said Great Minds is a candidate for the Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap on May 30 or the $100,000 Evangeline Mile on June 4. The horse won the Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile on May 6 at Lone Star and was shipped back to his base at Evangeline.

Stall said the horse’s next race is being discussed with owner Vince Wilfork.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Firing Line, the 2015 Kentucky Derby runner-up, posted his first workout on the comeback trail Tuesday at Santa Anita, three furlongs in an easy 37.40 seconds.

Firing Line has not started since finishing seventh in the Preakness Stakes, after which he underwent minor surgery to remove flakes from both front ankles. The time off did him good, said trainer Simon Callaghan.

“He was always a really imposing horse physically, but now you can see he is a mature 4-year-old,” Callaghan said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The Grade 1 Vanity on June 4 at Santa Anita, previously billed as a showdown between champions Beholder and Stellar Wind, will be more than a two-horse race.

Taris, who crushed the Grade 1, seven-furlong Humana Distaff last Saturday at Churchill Downs, will stretch back out to two turns for the Vanity, trainer Simon Callaghan said on Wednesday.

“Obviously, we wish the race was seven-eighths,” Callaghan said. “If it was a mile and an eighth, we wouldn’t, but the fact it is a mile … definitely.”