OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice has been thinking about the Grade 1 Cigar Mile for Seymourdini for months. Though there were a few bumps along the road, Seymourdini has seemingly arrived at his destination in good shape.

On Friday, Seymourdini worked six furlongs in 1:14.44 over the Belmont Park training track in preparation for the $750,000 Cigar Mile next Saturday. In a move that began at the half-mile pole, Seymourdini went a quarter in 24.80 seconds, the half-mile in 48.97, and got his final quarter, which went around the turn, in 25.47.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Avery Island, convincing winner of the Grade 2 Nashua here Nov. 5, worked four furlongs in 47.50 seconds Friday morning over Belmont Park’s training track in preparation for a start in next Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen Stakes for 2-year-olds at Aqueduct.

Avery Island, working outside of the 4-year-old colt Tathqeef, went his opening quarter in 23.43 and galloped out five furlongs in 1:01.11.

“He worked well and looked good doing it,” said Joe Lee, assistant to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Stallwalkin’ Dude came out of his 1 3/4-length victory in Thursday’s Grade 3 Fall Highweight Handicap “great,” according to trainer and part-owner David Jacobson who said the 7-year-old gelding would likely be aimed at the $100,000 Gravesend Stakes here Dec. 23. Stallwalkin’ Dude won last year’s Gravesend after finishing second in the Fall Highweight.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Shivermetimbers, who won a highly rated maiden race for 2-year-olds going one mile Thursday at Del Mar, won’t be wheeled back in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity at Los Alamitos in 16 days, but hopes are high for him, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Friday.

“I was very happy with the way he handled himself,” Hollendorfer said of Shivermetimbers, who earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 89 when defeating Peace by a head in 1:36.94 on the fast main track.

Los Alamitos on Thursday will launch its three-week winter meeting, a 12-day season that will include three graded stakes.

The meeting, which runs through Dec. 17 on a Thursday-through-Sunday basis, is led by two Grade 1, $300,000 races for 2-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on Dec. 9 – the CashCall Los Alamitos Futurity and the Starlet Stakes for fillies.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Bolt d’Oro, one of the nation’s leading 2-year-old males, is tentatively scheduled to have a three-race campaign at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.

Owner and trainer Mick Ruis said Thursday that Bolt d’Oro is likely to have his first start of 2018 in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes at seven furlongs in early February. The Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles March 10 and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles April 7 are other race goals, Ruis said.

“I’m going in all three races,” Ruis said.

MIAMI – Anybody wondering whether trainer Jorge Navarro would be returning to south Florida at full strength for the upcoming Championship meeting at Gulfstream Park had only to look at the entries for the final two cards of the Gulfstream Park West session this weekend.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Sunday might be the day that Mike Maker achieves a milestone the 48-year-old trainer said “has come up a lot faster than I had a right to imagine.”

:: Save on PPs, digital subscriptions, and more with DRF's Black Friday sale!

Four months of winter racing over Polytrack starts Wednesday night at Turfway Park as the Florence, Ky., oval continues to lag well behind other Kentucky tracks in purse offerings.

:: Save on PPs, digital subscriptions, and more with DRF's Black Friday sale!

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – At his career peak, Pat Byrne came within one vote of being named the Eclipse Award-winning trainer of 1997. Twenty years later, with a stable just a fraction of the size it once was, Byrne won a race for the first time in more than a year when Run Tappy captured a Thursday maiden race on the Churchill turf.

“I’ve just been going at my own pace these last six or seven years, kicking along with the same people,” said Byrne, 61. “I’m fine. I’m pretty well set because of how I did years ago. Nobody needs to feel sorry for me.”