ARCADIA, Calif. – Uncle Lino, the winner of the California Chrome Stakes at Los Alamitos in April who was vanned off after finishing seventh in the Preakness Stakes in May, is nearing a return to training.

Trainer Gary Sherlock said on Thursday that Uncle Lino is expected to arrive at his stable at Santa Anita this weekend. The gelding was turned out in May after returning to California from his loss in the Preakness.

“They’ve given him plenty of time,” Sherlock said. “We’ll get him ready to run. It will probably be March.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Arrogate worked a half-mile in 48 seconds at Santa Anita on Thursday, an exercise that trainer Bob Baffert described as the colt’s first serious workout since a win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 5.

Arrogate breezed a half-mile in 49 seconds at Santa Anita on Dec. 1 but was given a more strenuous workout Thursday. Ridden by jockey Martin Garcia, Arrogate began his workout well before the half-mile pole. He worked the opening furlong in 11.90 seconds, the first quarter-mile in 23.60, and three furlongs in 36 seconds.

When Brian Michael was exercising horses on the Kentucky circuit, there was also an active jockey named Michael Bryan.

“People would get pretty confused about it,” recalled Michael, now a trainer with a 12-horse stable at the Thoroughbred Center training facility in Lexington, Ky. “I’d have to tell them, ‘No, I’m too tall to ride races.’ ”

Michael, 47, is the son of the late Russ Michael, a prominent Lexington-area equine insurance agent and owner-breeder who died suddenly in 1988 at age 54 at his Landmark Farm. His son began working with horses at an early age.

Former Canadian champion jockey Luis Contreras is spending the winter in Southern California and will have his first mount at Los Alamitos on Friday.

Contreras rode in Southern California as recently as 2008 and had a mount at the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita last month, finishing fourth on Calgary Cat in the Turf Sprint. Contreras has won 1,638 races, including 24 victories in Southern California. He won the Sovereign Award as Canada’s outstanding rider in 2011 and 2012.

After spending the last two winters riding in Saudi Arabia, jockey Alan Garcia is back in New York, hoping to rekindle some success of winters past.

Garcia, 31, last wintered in New York five years ago, when he won 46 races over the inner track, finishing sixth in the rider standings. In 2007-08, Garcia won 80 races, second only to Ramon Dominguez. Later that year, Garcia won the Belmont Stakes aboard Da’ Tara, the day Big Brown was trying to complete the Triple Crown.

Paulassilverlining, a three-time graded stakes winner in 2016, figures to be an odds-on choice in Saturday’s $125,000 Garland of Roses, the first stakes race of the inner-track season at Aqueduct.

Two starts back, Paulassilverlining won the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom Handicap at Belmont and then finished third, beaten just two lengths, in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 5 at Santa Anita.

The $300,000 Springboard Mile on Sunday at Remington Park is a chance for trainer Danny Pish to learn more about the distance preferences of the promising 2-year-old U S Officer. The horse already is a winner at the race’s one-mile distance but last month notched his most significant victory in a sprint stakes, the $100,000 Clever Trevor. That race served as the local prep for the Springboard.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer David Cannizzo on Wednesday morning was talking about the potential he felt his barn had for a strong winter meet. Two races into Wednesday’s card, Cannizzo got his first victory when Battle Midway rallied down the center of Aqueduct’s inner track to spring an 11-1 upset.

This after winning eight races from 33 starters over Aqueduct’s main track during the fall.

However, Cannizzo believes the number of trips he makes to the winner’s circle will depend on how well his young horses perform over the inner track.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The old adage about getting better with age surely applies to the turf specialist Whisper Onthe Wind, who will be among the favorites in Friday’s co-featured ninth race at Gulfstream Park, a first-level optional $16,000 claimer for Florida-breds going a mile on turf.

CYPRESS, Calif. – The $300,000 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos on Saturday had a field of nine probable starters as of Wednesday morning, an indication of the open nature of the Southern California 2-year-old filly division.

Five projected runners were supplemented to the race for $10,000 – Abel Tasman, Berned, Mopotism, Tapped, and Union Strike. Of those, Union Strike, the winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 3, is the most prominent. She was sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.