The Coolmore connections of M.V. Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith have purchased an interest in the unbeaten Gulfport, who goes for his third straight victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Saratoga Special.

Gulfport’s owners include Corinne and William Heiligbrodt, Jackport Farm and Whispering Oaks. Gulfport, trained by Steve Asmussen, was a $275,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton summer yearling sale in July 2021.

At the conclusion of his racing career, Gulfport will join his sire, Uncle Mo, as a stallion at Coolmore America.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Chad Brown, still in search of his first victory in the race, will send out the top filly Regal Glory against four males in the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap, a one-mile turf feature on Saturday’s card at Saratoga.

Brown has run 13 horses in seven runnings of the Fourstardave, with four second-place finishes. In 2020, when he ran half the eight-horse field, his horses finished fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – His résumé includes four Eclipse Awards, more than 5,500 wins, $371 million in purse earnings – ranking him second all-time – and a Hall of Fame plaque.

Still, Javier Castellano has spent the better part of the last two years trying to reinvent himself.

Trainer Mike Puhich is looking forward to Sunday, when he is hoping to win the $150,000 Longacres Mile for the second year in a row with Background. The Puhich-trained Princess of Cairo is nominated to the Mile, but will start in the $75,000 Emerald Distaff, where she also is trying to repeat and figures to be a solid favorite in the 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares. Puhich also is entering Big Java in the $75,000 Washington Oaks. The only stakes race Puhich will not be participating in is the $75,000 Muckleshoot Derby.

Delaware Park in Newark, Del., has put in place restrictions on horses moving in and out of the backstretch after a horse there began exhibiting symptoms of equine herpesvirus, a highly contagious disease.

A biological sample from the horse has been sent to the nearby New Bolton Center for testing, according to racing secretary Jerome Doro, but presence of the disease has not yet been confirmed. The barn where the horse is stabled has been put on “lockdown,” Doro said, and horses that have come on to the grounds will, for the meantime, be barred from leaving.

On Sunday, Ellis will host its signature events of the summer when the $200,000 Ellis Park Derby and $125,000 Groupie Doll anchor a busy five-stakes program Sunday. Entries were to be drawn Thursday.

Three-year-olds expected for the 1 1/8-mile Ellis Derby include Friar Laurence, Strava, Trademark, and a Florida shipper, Steal Sunshine. The one-mile Groupie Doll was expected to get a sizable lineup of fillies and mares including Four Graces, Super Quick, and Lovemesomeme.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Nine older horses led by Santin and Smooth Like Strait have been entered in the Grade 1 Arlington Million, which will be run Saturday for the first time at Churchill Downs.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockeys Abel Cedillo and Declan Cannon both have been suspended by Del Mar’s stewards for three days, beginning Thursday, for separate incidents in the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes July 31.

Cedillo rode the race winner, Master Piece, who had to survive a lengthy inquiry initiated by an objection lodged by trainer Phil D’Amato, who sent out four runners, including the second- and third-place finishers, Hong Kong Harry and Cathkin Peak.

Damon’s Mound is all set for Saturday’s Saratoga Special, having come out of his final workout for the race in good order.  

Saturday at trainer Michelle Lovell’s Colonial Downs base, Damon’s Mound worked five furlongs in 1:02, with race rider Gabriel Saez coming in to breeze the colt.  

“Just a maintenance work,” said Michelle Lovell, who trains Damon’s Mound for Michele and Cliff Love. “Just an easy, in-hand work by himself.” 

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y – After running third in both the Grade 2 Wood Memorial and Grade 1 Belmont Stakes earlier this season, Skippylongstocking got his first graded stakes win when registering a 1 1/2-length victory over the favored We the People in Saturday’s Grade 3 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park. That performance has his connections contemplating a start here in the Grade 1 Travers at Saratoga later this month.