ELMONT, N.Y. – Four-time Grade 1 winner Private Zone completed preparations for his 7-year-old debut in next Friday’s Grade 2 True North at Belmont Park by working a sharp half-mile in 46.07 seconds Thursday morning out of the gate over Belmont’s main track. It was his seventh work and first from the gate since he resumed training earlier this year. Private Zone has not run since finishing fifth as the 6-5 favorite in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Nov. 28. “I’d say he’s ready,” trainer Brian Lynch said. “I feel good about it going into it. Thought that might have been a little bit of a test for him today – that big, long backside at Belmont with nothing in front of him – but he stuck to it and did what we wanted him to. Couldn’t be happier with him going into the race.” Private Zone is 3 for 4 at Belmont, with Grade 1 wins in the Vosburgh in 2013-14 and a Grade 3 victory in last year’s Belmont Sprint Championship. He also won the Forego at Saratoga last year before running second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint to Runhappy. Transferred from Jorge Navarro to Brian Lynch after that race, Private Zone showed signs of tailing off with a poor workout before the Cigar Mile. He tried to get out in the workout and did the same in the race. “We got him over the difficult stages, and he started to come around,” Lynch said. “We’ve been able to get some solid work into him without hiccups. That last work was just perfect for me going into a race eight days out.” Lynch said that Martin Pedroza, the regular rider for Private Zone, will ride. One of Private Zone’s major rivals figures to be the Navarro-trained Catalina Red, winner of the Grade 2 Churchill Downs in his last start. On Thursday, at Monmouth Park, Catalina Red worked a half-mile in 47.40, the fastest of 30 works at the distance. “He came out of the last race in good shape,” Navarro said. Navarro also plans to run Delta Bluesman, who was disqualified from first and placed fifth in the Decathlon Stakes on May 14 at Monmouth. Others pointing to the True North are Always Sunshine, Dads Caps, Holy Boss, and Joking.