Crist: Woodward Day cheat sheet

The final Saturday of the Saratoga meeting includes four consecutive graded stakes starting with race 8 of 12, the Grade 3 Saranac for 3-year-old turfers, the Grade 1 Spinaway for 2-year-old fillies, the Grade 1 Woodward for older males, and the Grade 3 Glens Falls for older long-distance turf fillies and mares. The shortest price among the quartet is likely to be Liam’s Map in a Woodward where two trainers account for three-quarters of the field: Todd Pletcher sends out four of them, including Liam’s Map, while Jimmy Jerkens will saddle both Effinex and Wicked Strong.

Six of the last 12 Woodward winners (Mineshaft, Ghostzapper, Saint Liam, Curlin, Rachel Alexandra, and Havre de Grace) went on to be named Horse of the Year at season’s end, but it’s at least 10,000-1 that that will happen this year in the absence of American Pharoah, or even Honor Code or Beholder, from the field. The field’s lone Grade 1 winner, Wicked Strong, has not won a race this year, and it would probably take victories both today and in the Breeders’ Cup Classic for any of today’s entrants to be a serious contender for the older dirt male Eclipse Award.

Below are my takes on the 31 entrants in the four races (no scratches as of 11 a.m. Eastern). Each line of the chart lists each horse’s morning-line odds, last-out Beyer Speed Figure, career-best Beyer (on the surface of today’s race), highest winning level, and a comment.