Daredevil draws post 6 for Wood Memorial

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher may have lost one top contender for Saturday’s Grade 1 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct when Far From Over got hurt, but he still has another big chance to win the $1 million race with Daredevil.

Daredevil, last year’s Grade 1 Champagne Stakes winner, was one of seven 3-year-olds entered Wednesday for the Wood Memorial, the last of four races for 3-year-olds hosted by Aqueduct on the road to the May 2 Kentucky Derby.

Daredevil, who drew post 6, meets a field that includes the three-time graded stakes winner El Kabeir as well as Holy Bull runner-up Frosted, Gotham runner-up Tiz Shea D, Tencendur, Lieutenant Colonel, and Toasting Master.

The Wood, run at 1 1/8 miles over Aqueduct’s main track, anchors a 12-race card that begins at 12:50 p.m. Eastern and includes the Grade 1 Carter, Grade 2 Gazelle, and Grade 3 Bay Shore. Those four races comprise an all-stakes pick four with a guaranteed pool of $500,000.

Daredevil won his first two starts at age 2, including the Champagne, a one-turn mile at Belmont. He finished his 2-year-old year with a last-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, a performance Pletcher couldn’t really explain.

Daredevil made his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2 Swale, a seven-furlong race at Gulfstream Park, where he finished second to Ready for Rye. Daredevil was beaten 2 3/4 lengths but finished 10 lengths clear of the third-place finisher. Ready for Rye ran seven furlongs in 1:22.39 and earned a 105 Beyer Speed Figure.

“I think we had him prepared in a fashion where we thought he would run well and expected him to run well but didn’t necessarily think we had to run quite that fast to get the job done,” said Pletcher, who trains Daredevil for Let’s Go Stable, WinStar Farm, and China Horse Club.

The big question Daredevil will have to answer in the Wood is whether he can get 1 1/8 miles around two turns. He is a half-brother to Albertus Maximus, who won the Grade 1 Donn Handicap at that distance. Daredevil is by More Than Ready, the sire of 2013 Wood Memorial and Haskell Invitational winner Verrazano.

“He’s very talented, and he’s also fast,” said Pletcher, who has won three of the last five Wood Memorials. “Part of his success stretching out is going to depend on how he settles the first part.”

Daredevil will be ridden by Javier Castellano, who won the Wood for Pletcher in 2012 on Gemologist and in 2005 for Nick Zito on Bellamy Road.

Daredevil might vie for favoritism in the Wood with El Kabeir, who has won three graded stakes in his last four starts, including the Grade 3 Gotham, a race in which he rallied from last. El Kabeir, who will break from post 5 under C.C. Lopez, will seek to become the 15th horse to record the Gotham-Wood double, the last to do so being I Want Revenge in 2009.

From the rail out, the field is: Tiz Shea D (Manuel Franco), Toasting Master (Angel Arroyo), Lieutenant Colonel (Irad Ortiz Jr.), Frosted (Joel Rosario), El Kabeir (Lopez), Daredevil (Castellano), and Tencendur (Jose Ortiz).