OZONE PARK, N.Y. – King Kranz became the first stakes winner on this circuit in 2016, winning the Lost in the Fog Stakes on New Year’s Day at Aqueduct. Away from the races for the last five months, King Kranz is working his way toward a return to action later this winter.

On Wednesday, King Kranz worked four furlongs in 49.71 seconds over the Belmont Park training track. He worked in company with Not Taken and got his final quarter in 24.07 seconds. It was his fourth work back since getting a break following a sixth-place finish in the Grade 2 Amsterdam at Saratoga on July 30.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While his top New York-bred older route horse, Royal Posse, awaits the Jazil Stakes here on Jan. 14, trainer Rudy Rodriguez will still be well represented in Saturday’s $100,000 Alex M. Robb Stakes with Good Luck Gus and Becker’s Galaxy.

A field of seven was entered Wednesday for the Robb, a 1 1/16-mile race for New York-bred 3-year-olds and up, including last year’s winner, Empire Dreams.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After flashy wins sprinting in his last two starts, El Areeb will get his first opportunity to stretch out around two turns in Monday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct.

El Areeb, a son of Exchange Rate, completed preparations for the Jerome on Wednesday morning by working six furlongs in 1:15 at Laurel Park, where trainer Cal Lynch is based.

“The further, the better the way he’s training,” Lynch said. “We always thought he wanted to go longer.”

The Jerome is run at a mile and 70 yards.

Oaklawn Park newcomer Declan Cannon started getting on horses at the Hot Springs, Ark., track on Wednesday, according to his agent, Cory Prewitt.

“He breezed a few horses this morning,” Prewitt said.

Cannon on Tuesday traveled to Oaklawn, which begins its meet Jan. 13.

Cannon had been riding at Tampa Bay Downs, where he went 5 for 19 in December for a 26 percent strike rate. Earlier in the year, he was based in Kentucky, and the wins he had there for outfits that spend the winter at Oaklawn led to the decision to base in Hot Springs, said Prewitt.

A. P. Indian, the East’s top sprinter of 2016, has been freshened since his fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint but is scheduled to go back to work next week, according to trainer Arnaud Delacour.

A. P. Indian went into the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita undefeated in six starts this year but couldn’t muster a rally as Drefong and Masochistic ran one-two throughout.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The $300,000 American Oaks at Santa Anita on Saturday will largely be an affair for locals.

Track officials said transport issues prevented a few possible runners based on the East Coast from being sent to California for the Oaks, a Grade 1 race for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/4 miles on turf. As a result, the leading contenders are fillies who have excelled on this circuit throughout the year.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Masochistic, who tested positive for a banned steroid after a second-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 5, was not allowed to enter Saturday’s $100,000 Midnight Lute Stakes at Santa Anita because he had yet to pass a test showing the medication had cleared his system by entry day, Wednesday.

Trainer Ron Ellis was informed Wednesday by track stewards that Masochistic was ineligible to start until he is removed from a stewards’ list for the positive test. Ellis said Masochistic was tested on Monday and that results will not be available until Friday.

With two programs remaining at the Laurel Park fall meet, Mary Eppler is six wins in front in the trainer standings and on the verge of her first title. Her prospects for 2017 are looking up too, as her super-claim, Page McKenney, is nearing a return to the races after being diagnosed in May with a minor tendon injury.

If Eppler wins the title, she will be the first woman to lead the standings at Laurel Park and the first to win a Maryland meet since Karen Patty sent out 10 winners to lead the 1992 Pimlico fall meet.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Attendance and handle showed growth from last year on Monday’s opening day of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.

According to figures released by the track, ontrack attendance was 46,514, a gain of 3.5 percent over 44,873 on opening day of the 2015-16 winter spring meeting on a Saturday.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Mario Gutierrez will serve a one-day suspension Saturday for participating in more than one designated race at Los Alamitos on Dec. 17 while under suspension.

In California, designated races are typically six-figure stakes exempt from routine suspensions. Gutierrez rode two such stakes at Los Alamitos on Dec. 17 while in the midst of a three-day suspension for causing interference in a race at Los Alamitos in September.