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.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Naughty Gal gave trainer D. Wayne Lukas his seventh victory in the Grade 3 Adirondack Stakes on Sunday at Saratoga. He will try to win his seventh Grade 1 Spinaway at the end of the meet with a different horse.

Summer Promise, who finished second in the Grade 3 Schuylerville here on the July 14 opening-day card, worked a half-mile in 48.10 seconds Monday morning over the Oklahoma training track. Getting a good run up to the pole, Summer Promise went her first quarter in 23.67 and her second quarter in 24.53.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Nations Pride and With The Moonlight, the two Godolphin-owned, Charlie Appleby-trained runners who swept last weekend’s turf stakes for 3-year-olds, are sticking around a little longer.

While Nations Pride, winner of the Grade 1, $1 million Saratoga Derby on Saturday, has his objective as the Grade 3, $1 million Jockey Club Derby on Sept. 17 at Aqueduct, With The Moonlight could run right back in the Grade 2, $200,000 Lake Placid here on Aug. 20.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Monday marked only nine days since Epicenter won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy, but the 3-year-old colt seems eager to get to his next engagement, the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 27.

Sensing how sharp Epicenter has been the last week, trainer Steve Asmussen on Monday gave him a five-furlong workout that the 3-year-old did by himself in 1:01.70. He got his final quarter in 24.81 seconds and galloped out six furlongs in 1:15.41.

It was a bit atypical for an Asmussen runner to do that much so close to his last race.