OZONE PARK, N.Y. - On the list of places to stop on the way from New York to Southern California, south Florida would have to rank among the least convenient. But when it comes to trying to win a Grade 1 race, convenience takes a backseat to business.

So, bright and early Saturday morning, Javier Castellano found himself at Gulfstream Park West, where he worked Sharp Azteca six furlongs in 1:13 in preparation for next Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct. Castellano, who rode at Aqueduct on Friday, flew to south Florida Friday night.

It’s all Stall, all the time so far this Fair Grounds meet. Trainer Al Stall had five winners and two seconds from his first nine runners over two racing days, and he has the morning-line 6-5 favorite, Forevamo, in the featured fifth race Sunday.

Forevamo is one of six entrants in a second-level allowance race carded for six furlongs on dirt and also open to $40,000 claimers. He races for the first time since May 6, when Forevamo was last of 14 in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs, and for the first time since being gelded.

If Yockey’s Warrior ran only in the Thanksgiving Handicap he might be a champion.

Yockey’s Warrior won the 2016 Thanksgiving Handicap by more than two lengths and earned a career-best 103 Beyer Speed Figure. Thursday, Yockey’s Warrior won the 2017 Thanksgiving Handicap by five lengths, running six furlongs in 1:09.60 and earning a 101 Beyer, the second-highest figure of his career.

“If the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill was in four weeks, you’d maybe say he belongs off that race,” said trainer Al Stall, who also owns Yockey’s Warrior in a partnership.

He was still wearing his Breeders’ Cup Classic morning training saddle towel on the track at 6:30 a.m. last Friday at Fair Grounds, but by now Gun Runner’s connections have earned the right to train him in a Hawaiian grass skirt if they so choose.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The Gotham Stakes for 3-year-olds will revert to a one-turn mile next year and is one of 18 stakes that had its distance adjusted for 2018 as the New York Racing Association released its stakes schedules for Aqueduct’s winter and spring seasons.

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.