Preakness winner Curlin vanned to New Jersey this morning, arriving safely at Monmouth Park around 8:30, according to trainer Steve Asmussen. The chestnut colt will be making his first start since his head loss to Rags to Riches in the Belmont Stakes when he goes in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational on Sunday afternoon.

On Tuesday morning, the son of Smart Strike breezed four furlongs in :49 2/5 over Saratoga’s Oklahoma training track.

“We wanted to get him down there a few days early to let him get a feel for the track and the surroundings,” Asmussen said.

Asmussen is not looking ahead to the Grade 1, $1 million Travers, presented by New York Lottery on August 25th, until after Sunday’s race. Should both Curlin and Kentucky Derby and Jim Dandy winner Street Sense make the Travers, it would be the third time the two have met.

“He ran a good race,” Asmussen said when asked about Street Sense’s Jim Dandy performance. “I’m very excited to get Curlin back going Sunday.”

Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey reported that the Phipps Stable’s third-place Jim Dandy finisher Sightseeing came out of his 2 ¼-length loss to Street Sense in good order and that the colt could be headed to the Travers.

“I was encouraged with his race,” McGaughey said of the Peter Pan winner. “He relaxed well the first part of it and finished up well. I thought everything was fine. That was his best race.”

McGaughey also said that three-year-old filly Clifton Bay could make her next start in the Grade 2, $150,000 Lake Placid August 17th. The Gone West filly is now 2-for-3 on the grass with her only defeat coming to Tears I Cry, who runs in today’s 10th race.

Nick Zito, another Hall of Fame trainer, saddled five starters in stakes races from Saturday to Monday at Saratoga, and although he only came away with one victory, Zito said he was proud of all his horses.

Live Oak Plantation’s Most Distinguished registered his first stakes win Monday when he rallied to win the Grade 2 Amsterdam by a length over Americanus.

“They wanted to keep him sprinting and it looks like he can do it,” said Zito, who is eyeing the Grade 1, $250,000 King’s Bishop on Travers Day, August 25th, as Most Distinguished’s next start. “See, I wanted to stretch him out. I actually think this horse can go farther.”

On Sunday, Robert LaPenta’s C P West finished a game second to Street Sense in the Jim Dandy, only beaten 1 ½ lengths. For C P West, the Jim Dandy was an improvement over his last two runs in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

“It was probably too quick running in the Belmont,” Zito said. “In the Jim Dandy, he proved that he is a quality horse.”

C P West, who was beaten 5 ½ lengths in the Preakness, is likely to make his next start in the Travers.

In Saturday’s Grade 1 Whitney Handicap, Zito sent out Wanderin Boy and Sun King to respective second and 10th-place finishes. While Wanderin Boy showed a lot of heart to hold the place spot after a strong pace, Sun King had circumstances against him from the start and came out of the race a little worse for the wear.

“Sun King had a rough trip in the Whitney,” Zito said. “He had to steady right off the bat. He got a lot of dirt in his throat and he kind of got a black eye. His eye was closed when he came back. We’ll just throw that race out.”

Wanderin Boy and Sun King are now under consideration for the Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward here September 1st.

Commentator came out of his sixth-place finish in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt in good order and is likely to make his next start in the Grade 1, $250,000 Forego September 1st.

Saturday’s feature will be the 82nd running of the Grade 1, $250,000 Darley Test for three-year-old fillies at seven furlongs. The Darley Test (5:14 p.m. EDT) will be race 9 of a 10-race card that begins at 1 p.m. It will be televised as part of ESPN’s one-hour telecast that begins at 5 p.m.

Likely contenders are Akronism, Appealing Zophie, Astor Park, Baroness Thatcher, Cotton Blossom, Down, Dream Rush, High Again, Sheets, Silver Knockers and Time’s Mistress.

The 23rd running of the Grade 2, $150,000 Fourstardave Handicap will be Sunday’s feature. There will also be a Saratoga T-shirt Giveaway that day, with all paid admissions receiving a free shirt, while supplies last.

Baron Von Tap, Brilliant, Drum Major, Eccentric (GB), Host (CHI), Remarkable News (VEN), Woodlander and possibly Giant Basil are expected.

Monday morning, August 6, jockeys John Sellers and the recently retired Jose Santos; trainers Henry Forrest, Frank McCabe, and John Veitch; and the horses Mom’s Command, Silver Charm, and Swoon’s Son will be inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame.

The ceremonies, featuring the keynote speech by University of Louisville men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino, will be held at Fasig-Tipton’s Humphrey S. Finney Sales Pavilion on East Avenue at 10:30 a.m. The public is invited to the ceremonies, and there is no admission charge.

Later that day, Ambassador (GER), Buddy’s Humor, Distorted Reality, Jazz Quest and Marcavelly will take on Nobiz Like Shobiz, Aqueduct’s Grade 1 Wood Memorial winner back in April, as he makes his first turf start in the Grade 2, $150,000 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes for three-year-olds at nine furlongs.

Trainer Phil Gleaves, who was 29 years old when he completed the Haskell-Travers-Super Derby triple with Russell Reineman’s Wise Times in 1986, is back at Saratoga this week with Ninth of July, a New York-bred maiden who is named for Gleaves’ son, Schuyler’s birthday.

A 4-year-old Sea Salute mare, she has been running in South Florida, but Gleaves felt it worth the trip north this summer. He is looking to run her on Sunday in a state-bred maiden race.

“The purse for her race is $56,000 -- and that’s American money,” said Gleaves, a native of Liverpool, England. “Seriously, the purses here this summer are incredible and you would have to be a fool not to take full advantage of the opportunity to run for that kind of purse.”

Gleaves is well aware of purse value. When Wise Times won the Travers with future Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey up, the winners’ purse was $203,700.

“The following year, when Java Gold won it, he got $673,000,” Gleaves said. “Thanks.

“And, I wasn’t even invited to the Travers Ball.”