A contentious field of nine assembled for the Wood Memorial on Saturday
A contentious field of nine assembled for the Wood Memorial on Saturday
By the New York Hot List Staff // Friday, April 2, 2021
The 2021 running of the $750,000 Grade 2 Wood Memorial has one of the strongest fields in recent years with four horses that already have won a race on the Kentucky Derby trail. There are plenty of qualifying points [100-40-20-10] available to the top four finishers so that up to four horses could move from the Wood to the Run for the Roses.
In the Derby points race, Weyburn has 50 from his win in the Gotham (G3) where he beat Crowded Trade by a nose who earned 20 points. Brooklyn Strong, Candy Man Rocket, and Risk Taking have 10 points from their earlier wins in Derby preps.
The morning line shows the Chad Brown and Klaravich Stable duo of Risk Taking and Crowded Trade as the first and third choices at 5-2 and 4-1 respectively. Prevalence is the 3-1 second choice based on his unbeaten record in two starts.
Prevalence is a Godolphin home-bred trained by Brendan Walsh who began his career in January at Gulfstream Park with an open length victory against a good field.
“There were a bunch of horses in that race being touted,” Walsh said. “A lot of them have come back and run well, which showed that the form was respectable. He won by a very wide margin and no matter the company you’re in that’s pretty remarkable.”
Here are the Hot List picks for the Wood Memorial:
The $750,000 Wood Memorial, Aqueduct, Saturday, Race 10. The Wood Memorial is a Kentucky Derby qualifying race that offers points [100-40-20-10] to the top four finishers. (2) Crowded Trade (C) was a Hot List ‘A’ horse based on his maiden victory heading into the Gotham. He got off to a poor start in that race but was able to get the lead in the one-turn mile. Down the stretch, he battled with the eventual winner Weyburn losing by just a nose. Crowded Trade was heavily bet in the Gotham from 13-1 to 5-1. He is likely to improve and that makes him the top choice. (6) Prevalence is another talented, but lightly-raced 3-year-old, with only two starts. The sky could be the limit for this son of Medaglia d’Oro. Jockey Tyler Gaffalione makes the trip to New York to stay on board when there are big races in Keeneland. (4) Risk Taking was an impressive winner of his last two starts since getting the blinkers on. The other Chad Brown runner won the Withers going nine-furlongs. (8) Weyburn won the Gotham at odds of 46-1 clinching a spot in the Derby field. I feel like he may get a bit overlooked in the betting.
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