Wood Memorial Stakes

$750,000 Grade II Wood Memorial Stakes
Aqueduct | Race 10 | Dirt | 9 Furlongs | Post 4:07 ET

#1 Resilience | Always a professional look for the future to start career on a COMP/REV combo especially when being asked to go in a longer maiden race. Kept strong company which caused him to take a little longer to graduate. Solid enough combo of speed and stamina with tight dirt spreads so far but needs to get moving in a tough field here. 6/1 sounds a bit short for me.

#2 El Grande O | Nice durability to string together the most experience of this field and things coming together recently sporting back-to-back 70+ Final Figures for the first time. Question as to how much the “off” goings contributed to those recent runs though as his most recent fast track experience was one of his slower pacelines. Could be potential there but definitely some uncertainties surrounding possible bias in the back form.

#3 Lonesome Boy | Coming off a 77/70 NPT is a nice spot at face value, but with it being prompted out of the blue on slop after a long string of sub-par pacelines, skeptical he’s slinging anything competitive today against these.

#4 Deterministic | One of the more precocious debuts of field with a nice 72h/71 COMP and backed that up fresh throwing up a 72h/74 REV off a long break to stay perfect. All signs point to 9 panels being no problem. 7/5 would be too short of price since he ranks up on the top level with a couple others rather than up top alone.

#5 Protective | Always good to see a COMP/REV debut in first two starts, but that first pattern was just barely earned and the second pattern featured him coming up short as a failed 3/5 shot. Good sheet at face value but subpar figures compared to today’s sophomores.

#6 Evening News | Tough to assess as he’s made nice strides through his sheet to correct some energy distribution issues summed up by comparing the 73h/62h in December to a 65h/71 in his latest at the same trip. Development is there to make 20/1 look tempting, but lack of main track experience could be an issue. Synthetic is a good surface to school and develop on, but doesn’t do quite as much for conditioning which he might need more of to sustain the forces of hard dirt as an E-type runner.

#7 Merit | Great-looking cycle going COMP*/NPT/NPT, but that triple combo also came very much at a lower level of paceline than today’s rivals. Needs to get on another level here and offer huge odds to like.

#8 Elysian Meadows | Another with excellent progressions taking place tripling up COMP/NPT/REV into today’s test. Horse for the course so far, just needs to stretch it out to 9 furlongs and take a step forward. Would like 20/1+ to consider investing something.

#9 Tuscan Sky | 2 for 2 off the COMP/REV combo and gets first taste of a fast track today. Figures rate with the couple top contenders in this race so watch out if they translate well to a dry going. Doubt he’ll be 4/1.

#10 Gettysburg Address | Flashed a spark of talent for the new year when prompting a 68h/71 REV but then fell immediately into regression. Tough to find a reason he’d suddenly wake back up today but we’ll see him experiment with blinkers here and probably just be watching this one.

#11 Society Man | Three local routes have failed to produce running lines that would threaten today but I do find it interesting Gargan liked him enough to get him into a prep before breaking his maiden. 

#12 Deposition | Plenty of experience but never over a 70 Final Figure. Tough to back.

#13 Uncle Heavy | Bit of an uptick in last to 66/71 when shipping over to upset the Withers. Gets a tough draw today in the marooned spot, but to be fair, he was tough enough in last to overcome and imperfect trip. Think there could be potential here, especially if the public scoffs at the post and lets his odds float up too much.

Wagering
Feels like a 13-horse field that could be capped like it’s half that with several lane fillers in here that you could draw a line through. Keeping an eye on #13 as possible value Win Bet and also watching the probables on exactas covering 4,9,13 which I doubt will look enticing but never know.