Clement testing talented but lightly raced Deterministic in Wood Memorial

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In just two starts – and only one in the last eight months – Deterministic has become a highly regarded contender for the Kentucky Derby. There is still more to prove, however.

Saturday, Deterministic will get his first test around two turns and 1 1/8 miles when he takes on 12 rivals in the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. The Wood is the highlight of an 11-race card that begins at 11:30 a.m. and features four other stakes. It also is the first leg of a pick three wager linking with the Blue Grass (5:52 p.m.) and Santa Anita Derby (7:30 p.m.). The wager has a $3 minimum bet with a 19 percent takeout.

The Wood offers qualifying points to its top five finishers (100-50-25-15-10) toward the May 4 Kentucky Derby.

Deterministic, a son of Liam’s Map trained by Christophe Clement, has 50 points for winning the Grade 3 Gotham by two lengths here last month. That was his first start since his maiden win at Saratoga last August. An ankle chip required surgery and kept Deterministic from the races until the Gotham, a one-turn mile run over an extremely sloppy track.

Though Clement took the horse back to Florida to train, he said the Wood always seemed like the most logical spot once he decided not to try and train him up to the Kentucky Derby.

“I thought he was very impressive in the Gotham,” Clement said. “I do think running two turns in a large field is a good education to go for the next step if there is going to be a next step. I think the way he trains and the way he looks. The mile and an eighth will be fine, but unless you try it you’re never sure.”

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Clement said he was not overly aggressive with Deterministic following the Gotham, giving him two works at Payson Park, a training center in Indiantown, Fla. The most recent work was done with jockey Joel Rosario aboard and with a horse out in front of him to sit behind.

“The way he settled breezing, you’d expect him to stay two turns, but until you try there’s always a question mark,” Clement said.

Tuscan Sky, like Deterministic, is 2 for 2. He has yet to run in a stakes race and only beat two rivals when he captured a first-level allowance on Feb. 17 at Fair Grounds by two lengths. The horse who finished second, Nash, did come back to win a stakes at Oaklawn Park in his next start.

“His two races have been outstanding,” said Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Tuscan Sky and a seven-time Wood winner. “I always felt like a mile and an eighth would suit him. Everything suggests he fits at the top of the class.”

Manny Franco rides Tuscan Sky from post 9.

Pletcher also starts the maiden Protective. After finishing second in a maiden race last summer at Saratoga, Protective didn’t run again until March when he was disqualified from third and placed fourth in a mile and 40-yard maiden at Tampa. Pletcher is adding blinkers to Protective’s equipment.

If all 13 horses run in the Wood, it will be the largest field since 15 ran in 1975. That year, Foolish Pleasure won the Wood from post 15.

Uncle Heavy, who won the Grade 3 Withers here Feb. 3, will try to win the Wood from post 13. In the Withers, Uncle Heavy was wide throughout and just ran down El Grande O in the final jump to win by a nose.

While Uncle Heavy, a son of Social Inclusion, seems to want every bit of the distance, he is going to have to get faster to be taken seriously as a Derby contender.

“I believe he is,” trainer Butch Reid said. “He’s only had four lifetime starts and he was very green, made a couple of mistakes early on in his career like in the Pennsylvania Nursery where he ducked in from the one-hole.

“He was kind of immature, but with each start he’s learning the game,” Reid added. “You can see it in his training, he’s getting more serious as time goes on and I think that will contribute to him moving up the couple of lengths he has to.”

Mychel Sanchez has the call.

John Velazquez will try to work out a trip on Resilience from the rail. Trainer Bill Mott is adding blinkers to the colt’s equipment after he finished fourth behind Sierra Leone in the Risen Star.

Mott said when a horse on the lead drifted out in front of Resilience in the stretch of the Risen Star “he took a look at him and kind of broke his momentum,” Mott said.

Mott also sends out the New York-bred Elysian Meadows, who comes out of a fourth-place finish in the Sam F. Davis at Tampa Bay Downs.

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Two of the last three runnings of the Wood Memorial have been won by longshots – Bourbonic at 72-1 in 2021 and Lord Miles at 59-1 last year. Lord Miles was sent out by Saffie Joseph Jr., who sends out Merit on Saturday.

Merit is coming off a runner-up finish in an allowance at Gulfstream Park going 1 1/8 miles, a race in which the horse was on the lead. Joseph said he would prefer to see Merit have a target Saturday.

El Grande O, who was second in the Withers and third in the Jerome, is likely to be a pace factor from post 2 under Dylan Davis. Lonesome Boy (post 3) and Evening News (post 6) appear to be forward factors as well.

Gettysburg Address, Society Man, and Deposition complete the field.

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