OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Vyjack, the undefeated winner of the Jerome Stakes, stepped up his preparations for next month’s Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham Stakes by working five furlongs in 1:00.73 Thursday morning over Aqueduct’s inner track.

Trainer Rudy Rodriguez was aboard the gelding, who started about two lengths behind a stablemate and finished on even terms before galloping out well in front.

“He worked very good today,” Rodriguez said. “I put one horse in front of him, let him do a little bit more than what we were doing with him. He’s comfortable, very happy.”

Coolmore Stud has purchased an interest in promising 3-year-old Verrazano from owner Let’s Go Stable, adding another talented sophomore to its roster of possible Kentucky Derby contenders.

The international racing and breeding entity operated by Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier purchased a half interest in champion juvenile Shanghai Bobby from Starlight Racing days before the Harlan’s Holiday colt captured the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Jeff Greenhill said he has been getting “quite a few phone calls” lately to inquire whether he is interested in selling Mac the Man, the 3-year-old colt who earned some decent Beyer Speed Figures (84, 87) in sweeping the Turfway Prevue and 96Rock Stakes at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky.

“Everyone wants me to put a price on him, but I haven’t done that and don’t think I will,” said Greenhill, a 57-year-old former chemical engineer. “I’m really not interesting in selling. I didn’t get in this business 16 years ago to sell a good horse. I got in it to train a good horse.”

During their nearly 30-year association as owner and trainer, Robert Meyerhoff and Dick Small have tasted great success, winning the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Classic with the Maryland-bred Concern and banking $2.7 million with Broad Brush during his three-year racing career from 1985-87.

Meyerhoff, who races as Fitzhugh LLC, and Small have a potential rising star in Dynamic Strike, one of three Triple Crown nominees among a lineup of eight 3-year-olds in Saturday’s $75,000 Miracle Wood Stakes at Laurel Park.

Demonic, winner of a maiden race over seven furlongs in his debut Jan. 13, is being considered for two graded stakes for 3-year-olds in coming weeks – the $150,000 San Vicente Stakes over seven furlongs on Feb. 17 or the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on March 9.

Owned by Lee and Susan Searing and trained by John Sadler, Demonic worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 on Monday under jockey Garrett Gomez, who was aboard for the maiden win.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Always in a Tiz is to return to Oaklawn for the Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest on Feb. 18, setting up a rematch of the top three in last month’s $150,000 Smarty Jones. Always in a Tiz invaded from Florida for the Smarty Jones and was third by a neck, edged by winner Will Take Charge and runner-up Texas Bling, both of whom are scheduled to run back in the Southwest.

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

The Kentucky Derby has been run 138 times, but in those years only six times has a trainer been able to win it in consecutive years, and not since Bob Baffert in 1997 and 1998. This year, it will be Doug O’Neill’s turn to try and join a list that, so far, is restricted to “Derby Dick” Thompson, Ben Jones, Jimmy Jones, Lucien Laurin, D. Wayne Lukas, and Baffert, all of whom are in the Hall of Fame.

WHO’S HOT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Todd Pletcher might not have the winner of the 139th Derby on May 4 at Churchill Downs, and Bob Baffert might not either. But between them, they have 11 of the 23 separately listed interests in Pool 1 of the 2013 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, a development that seems to bode well for both.

Big Lute, a dominant debut winner of a maiden special weight sprint at Oaklawn last Friday, could make his stakes debut in the Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel, trainer Steve Hobby said on Tuesday. The mile and a sixteenth race for 3-year-olds is March 16 at Oaklawn.

“The ideal situation would be to give him experience going two turns one time [in an allowance], then go into the Rebel,” said Hobby. “That would be the best-case scenario.”