70k carryover spices card

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The Wood Memorial may be history, but there are still some things to look forward to in the final three weeks, or 14 days, of Aqueduct's spring meet.

Grass racing returns to Aqueduct on Wednesday, and if the warmer temperatures decide to stick around, racing secretary P.J. Campo hopes to card two turf races a day when possible.

Wednesday's card, which should be conducted under dry and sunny conditions, features a pick-six carryover of $70,522 after the wager went unhit on Wood Day. Two of the races this Wednesday are brought back from last Wednesday, a card that was scrapped after the third race when a spring snowstorm created an uneven sloppy surface, according to the jockeys.

Wednesday's feature is a second-level allowance race for New York-breds going one mile. The race also carries an optional claiming tag of $25,000, for which three of the horses are eligible. The same group of nine entered last week is back, though post positions are dramatically different. The horses who drew the four outside posts last week have drawn the inside first four posts this week.

That includes probable favorite , who went from post 9 to the rail. She has twice run in this condition, finishing third on Feb. 24 and second, beaten a head, on March 17. Her last three races, which include a maiden win Jan. 26, have come with the addition of blinkers.

"Since the blinkers, she's been forwardly placed in her races," said Seth Benzel, the assistant to trainer Todd Pletcher. "Before the blinkers, she had a tendency to be a little bit erratic with her runs."

Benzel would have preferred the outside post to the inside. New York Dream figures to vie for the lead with Cassette Case, who went from post 8 to post 2.

Raf and Ready and Morning Gallop have both won at a mile over Aqueduct's main track and would appreciate a contested pace. Raf and Ready has done her best work on wet tracks. Morning Gallop has not been out in 11 months.

The pick six concludes with the ninth race, for New York-bred maidens scheduled for one mile on the grass. Banrock, trained by Tom Bush, is out of the dam It's a Gherkin, who was a three-time turf winner and produced the turf-winning filly Finlandia. Ready Enough ran second in a maiden turf race last August at Saratoga, and Allaboutmack finished third over this course last November and earned a solid Beyer Speed Figure of 72.