Aqueduct notes: Wood Memorial still possible for Noble Moon

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Noble Moon, hampered by foot problems since winning the Grade 2 Jerome Stakes on Jan. 4, worked a half-mile in 51.46 seconds Thursday over the Belmont training track as he attempts to make it back for the Grade 1 Wood Memorial on April 5.

The breeze was the first for Noble Moon since Feb. 12 and just his second since winning the Jerome. Noble Moon initially had a problem with his right front foot that kept him out of training for several weeks. Last week, Noble Moon popped an abscess on his left front foot, forcing him to miss two or three additional days of training.

Trainer Leah Gyarmati said the abscess was cut out and drained. She equipped Noble Moon with an aluminum pad for Thursday’s work.

“I wouldn’t have been able to get out here if I didn’t do that,” Gyarmati said.

In Thursday’s work, Noble Moon went the opening quarter-mile in 26.28 seconds and came home his final quarter in 25.18 under mild encouragement from the exercise rider.

“It’s fine; he went off a little slow, but the track is slow,” Gyarmati said.

Gyarmati said that if Noble Moon can maintain a regular work schedule, she is hopeful he can make the Wood.

“If everything goes smoothly from now on, we’ll be okay, but who knows, right?” she said.

While Noble Moon is on the comeback trail, Gyarmati still will be represented in Saturday’s Grade 3, $500,000 Gotham Stakes by Deceived, a recent 8 1/4-length winner of a New York-bred first-level allowance race. Prior to that, he finished third, 19 1/2 lengths behind Samraat, in the Damon Runyon Stakes after breaking poorly. Samraat came back to win the Grade 3 Withers and likely will be favored in the Gotham.

“I think we could throw out the Damon Runyon because of the start, and I ran him back pretty quick,” said Gyarmati, who did run Deceive back 11 days after winning a maiden race. “He ran a number last time out I think puts him in the hunt. This is a test. We’ll see how he is. If he’s good enough to be competitive, then we have one route we can go, and if he’s not, we have lots of other routes to go with him.”

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

Later post time

Beginning Thursday, first post at Aqueduct will be moved to 1:20 p.m. for the remainder of the winter and spring season.

By moving the first post back almost an hour, the New York Racing Association hopes to increase its simulcast business on the West Coast.

“With more daylight time, we have the ability to start our races a little later, which gives our guests and horseplayers all over the country more time to handicap and adjust to race conditions,” said Martin Panza, NYRA’s senior vice president of racing operations, in a press release. “We also hope the change will make our signal more visible to bettors outside the Eastern time zone. We’ll continue to do our best to coordinate our post times with those of other prominent tracks to reduce conflicts and help horseplayers follow our races.”

Also, beginning next week, Aqueduct returns to a five-day race week, Thursdays through Mondays, through the end of March. Beginning in April, the schedule returns to Wednesdays through Sundays.