Tag: Wood Memorial

Belmont Stakes winner Mo Donegal suffered bone bruising coming out of the Belmont and will miss most of 2022. (Image: AJ Photo/NYRA.com)

Belmont Stakes Winner Mo Donegal Sidelined With Bone Bruising

- 2 min read

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 […]

Early Voting won the Grade 3 Withers in February. But the front-running Gun Runner colt is likely to skip the Kentucky Derby for the Preakness Stakes, according to his trainer, Chad Brown. (Image: Coglianese Photos/Janet Garaguso)

Early Voting May Give Up His Kentucky Derby Spot, Wait for Preakness

- 3 min read

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 […]

Nest and Irad Ortiz Jr. enjoyed an 8 1/4-length romp in Saturday's Grade 1 Ashland Oaks at Keeneland. The 3-year-old will attempt to give Todd Pletcher his second consecutive Kentucky Oaks victory and fifth overall. (Image: Keeneland/Coady Photography)

Colt Mo Donegal, Filly Nest Give Pletcher 1-2 Derby/Oaks Punch

- 3 min read

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 […]

Morello's resounding Gotham Stakes victory played a role in his 8/5 favorite status for Saturday's Grade 2 Wood Memorial. He is one of the few horses running Saturday who has a Kentucky Derby berth sewn up. (Image: Coglianese Photos/Susie Raisher)

Unbeatens Morello, Early Voting Set to Settle Matters in Wood Memorial

- 4 min read

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 […]

Early Voting is one of three unbeaten horses competing for guaranteed Kentucky Derby berths in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial. (Image: Coglianese Photo/Chelsea Durand)

Cross Country Pick 5 Goes High Stakes With Derby, Oaks Preps

- 3 min read

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 […]

Louisiana Derby winner Epicenter took 5/1 favored status going into the final Kentucky Derby Future Wager pool. That pool ends Saturday before the final major Derby preps begin. (Image: Hodges Photography/Amanda Hodges Weir)

Epicenter Your KDFW Favorite, Newcomer Messier Looms Large

- 3 min read

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 […]

Risk Taking, seen here capturing the Withers Stakes two starts ago, joins the Preakness Stakes field. (Image: Joe Labozzetta)

Brown Takes a Calculated Risk Sending Risk Taking to the Preakness

- 2 min read

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 […]

Dynamic One, seen here working out at Churchill Downs last Friday, is one of trainer Todd Pletcher's four Kentucky Derby entries. (Image: Churchill Downs)

Pletcher Plays Another Four of a Kind Kentucky Derby Hand

- 5 min read

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 […]

Don't get used to the scene of Kendrick Carmouche celebrating aboard Bourbonic. The 72/1 surprise Wood Memorial winner is best left off your Kentucky Derby tickets. (Image: Susie Raisher/Coglianese Photos)

Three Kentucky Derby Long Shots You Can Cross Off Right Now

- 4 min read

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, […]

Kendrick Carmouche and Bourbonic pulled off the biggest upset on the Kentucky Derby Trail, capturing Saturday's Wood Memorial at 72/1. (Image: NYRA)

This Bourbonic Plague Caught the Biggest Upset in Wood Memorial History

- 3 min read

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 […]

Weyburn (inside) held off a surging Crowded Trade to win the Grade 3 Gotham in February. The two tangle again in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial Saturday at Aqueduct. (Image: Sarah Andrew)

Wood Memorial Replaces Recent Derby History With Wide-Open Plot

- 5 min read

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 […]

Mind Control owns seven victories and more than $1 million in career earnings. He's also the only one of the five Carter Handicap entries with a Grade 1 victory. (Image: Susie Raisher)

The Carter Handicap Knows Its Place on the Wood Memorial Undercard

- 3 min read

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 […]

Eric Cancel completed his six-pack of Sunday victories with this neck score aboard My Boy Tate in the Haynesfield Stakes. Going 6-for-8 on Aqueduct's Winter Meet final day, gave Cancel his first riding title. (Image: Chelsea Durand/NYRA)

Cancel Culture Sweeps Aqueduct: Rider Wins Six for First Title

- 2 min read

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 […]

New York racing fans have an undetermined wait to see the Wood Memorial. New York's premier Derby prep was the latest coronavirus casualty.

Wood Memorial Becomes Latest Derby Prep Shelved Due To COVID-19

- 3 min read

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 […]