Photo:

Alex Evers / Eclipse Sportswire

Trainer Derek Ryan will stick with his original plan and run Book’em Danno in the Grade 2 Cigar Mile for his next start.

Ryan also had considered the listed Steel Valley Sprint at Mahoning Valley on Monday.

“It was just an option, just in case something happened and we had to re-route,” Ryan told Horse Racing Nation on Friday. “And it was 3-year-olds. Just got to keep all options open.”

Book’em Danno, a gelding by Bucchero, has a 6: 3-2-1 record this year and got his only graded-stakes win in the Woody Stephens (G1). A second-place finish last out in the Perryville (G3) put him above the million-dollar mark in earnings.

The Cigar Mile will be the first time Book’em Danno faces older company. Others possible for the Dec. 7 race at Aqueduct include Post Time, who was second in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, and Locked, last year’s Breeders’ Futurity (G1) winner who easily won his first start of this year in an allowance at Aqueduct.

“It’s going to be tougher, I know that,” Ryan said. “That’s for sure. But it could decide where we go after he runs.”

Ryan still plans to send Book’em Danno to Saudi Arabia in February for the Saudi Cup (G1) or Riyadh Dirt Sprint (G2). In February, he finished second in the Saudi Derby (G3).