You can scratch one Triple Crown race winner from future 2022 races, after Belmont Stakes winner Mo Donegal suffered bone bruising coming out of that victory that will cost him a large chunk of the rest of 2022. Mo Donegal came out of his three-length Belmont Stakes victory with the […]
Tag: Wood Memorial
Early Voting May Give Up His Kentucky Derby Spot, Wait for Preakness
Trainer Chad Brown said Wednesday that Early Voting will likely skip the Kentucky Derby and head straight to Baltimore for the May 21 Preakness Stakes. This, despite the fact Early Voting has the points for a starting gate berth in the May 7 Derby. This, despite the fact that Brown hedged […]
Colt Mo Donegal, Filly Nest Give Pletcher 1-2 Derby/Oaks Punch
As training days go, Todd Pletcher would take a lot more weekends like this. Days where he puts out a potential Kentucky Derby winner and a potential Kentucky Oaks winner. The Hall of Fame trainer’s Derby contender? Mo Donegal, who provided Pletcher with his record-tying seventh Wood Memorial title and […]
Unbeatens Morello, Early Voting Set to Settle Matters in Wood Memorial
The Grade 2 Wood Memorial boasts a winner’s roll that any race in America would proudly sell its soul to own. There’s Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Foolish Pleasure, Genuine Risk, Count Fleet, Omaha and Gallant Fox, to name a few. Yes, with 20 Kentucky Derby winners, Aqueduct’s marquee stop on the Kentucky […]
Carter Handicap, NYRA’s First Grade 1, Sounds Like a Speaker’s Corner
The Carter Handicap is one of only two Grade 1s on Aqueduct’s schedule, with the other being December’s Cigar Mile. Yet, the seven-furlong sprint isn’t the headliner on the Big A’s 11-race card on Saturday. That would be the Grade 2 Wood Memorial, which gets top billing thanks to its […]
Cross Country Pick 5 Goes High Stakes With Derby, Oaks Preps
One of the strongest New York Racing Association Cross Country Pick 5 offerings of the year awaits horseplayers this week. It presents an all-graded stakes sequence featuring two Grade 1s, two Grade 2s, and a strong Grade 3. And Kentucky Derby trail watchers, this wager is for you. Two of […]
Epicenter Your KDFW Favorite, Newcomer Messier Looms Large
The fifth and final Kentucky Derby Future Wager (KDFW) pool opens on Thursday with Louisiana Derby winner Epicenter the 5/1 favorite among the 23 individual and “All Other 3-Year-Olds” (aka The Field) choices. But, a newcomer to the pool should take plenty of money. That would be Messier, who makes […]
Brown Takes a Calculated Risk Sending Risk Taking to the Preakness
Calling an audible with an aptly named horse, trainer Chad Brown said Risk Taking will run in the Preakness Stakes instead of the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes – his original destination. Risk Taking was the morning-line favorite for the Peter Pan, a one-turn, 1 1/8-mile race on Saturday at […]
Pletcher Plays Another Four of a Kind Kentucky Derby Hand
One trainer has four horses – a quarter of the field – in this year’s Kentucky Derby. Surprisingly, his name is Todd Pletcher, and not Bob Baffert. It’s one of those counterintuitive Derby facts that most casual horse racing fans stumble over. And it’s not their fault. Nor is it […]
Three Kentucky Derby Long Shots You Can Cross Off Right Now
Here’s what finding the right Kentucky Derby long shot means to your exotic tickets. Last year’s Kentucky Derby $1 trifecta paid $1,311.80, for which you can thank 46/1 Mr. Big News and his unobtrusive third-place finish. Let’s look at 2019, asterisk and all. The $1 trifecta, starring 65/1 Country House, […]
This Bourbonic Plague Caught the Biggest Upset in Wood Memorial History
It had to be a typo that Todd Pletcher’s Bourbonic entered the Wood Memorial starting gate at 72/1. Surely, the trainer with the most Kentucky Derby starters in history couldn’t have a moon shot like this in a race he’s won five times. It was no typo. Bourbonic left the […]
Wood Memorial Replaces Recent Derby History With Wide-Open Plot
Let’s dispense with the Wood Memorial history out of the gate. There are 13 Triple Crown winners, and this Grade 2 Kentucky Derby prep claims four of them: Gallant Fox, Count Fleet, Seattle Slew, and Secretariat. Eleven horses pulled off the Wood Memorial/Kentucky Derby double. You’ve probably heard of a […]
The Carter Handicap Knows Its Place on the Wood Memorial Undercard
The Carter Handicap is that rare Grade 1 race sitting on an undercard featuring no other Grade 1s. But there it sits, the sixth race on Aqueduct’s Saturday card, almost an afterthought on Wood Memorial Day at the Big A. The $300,000, seven-furlong Carter, however, holds court as the first […]
Cancel Culture Sweeps Aqueduct: Rider Wins Six for First Title
It took Eric Cancel tying the New York Racing Association record for single-day wins to bring him his first career riding title. So with that flair for the dramatic, Cancel won six races on Aqueduct’s Winter Meet closing day Sunday. Call it his own stretch drive. Cancel came into Sunday’s […]
Wood Memorial Becomes Latest Derby Prep Shelved Due To COVID-19
With the New York Racing Association’s decision to suspend live racing at Aqueduct Racetrack through at least April 5 because of the coronavirus, another Kentucky Derby prep race went on the shelf. The latest postponed marquee race is the Grade 2 $750,000 Wood Memorial. Previously set for April 4, the […]