Improving Tax looks solid in Wood Memorial

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Last week, a horse who debuted in a $16,000 claiming race won the Grade 1 Florida Derby and established himself as a contender for the Kentucky Derby. This week, a horse who debuted in a $30,000 claiming race will try to do something similar.

Tax, second in his debut for maiden $30,000 claiming last fall at Keeneland, will try to win his second consecutive graded stakes in Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct and punch his ticket to the 145th Kentucky Derby on May 4 at Churchill Downs.

Tax, a gelding by Arch trained by Danny Gargan, figures to be third or fourth choice in a field of 11 in the Wood, which offers 170 qualifying points to its top four finishers (100-40-20-10) for the Kentucky Derby.

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Tax already has 12 points by virtue of a third-place finish in last December’s Remsen and a victory in the Grade 3 Withers on Feb. 2. Both of those races, like the Wood, were run at 1 1/8 miles over Aqueduct’s main track.

In the Remsen, Tax made an early run at heavily favored Maximus Mischief and was turned aside while losing second by a half-length to Network Effect. In the Withers, Tax overcame a stumbling start and rode the rail to a narrow victory over Not That Brady and Our Braintrust.

“If he runs either of those two races back, he’s going to be tough to beat,” said Gargan, who claimed Tax out of a win in a maiden $50,000 claimer last Oct. 21 at Keeneland.

Tax, based at Belmont Park all winter, has trained excellent since the Withers. Saturday, he will break from the rail under Junior Alvarado. Tax’s two wins have come when he’s had the rail.

Gargan said Tax will “break running” but anticipates Not That Brady and Hoffa’s Union will likely set the pace.

“I want to sit in the pocket like last time,” Gargan said.

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Tacitus, the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby winner, and Haikal, the Grade 3 Gotham winner, have enough points to qualify for the Kentucky Derby. Now, they need to prove to their connections they deserve to run in it.

Tacitus, who won a maiden race here last November in his second start, rallied from 10 lengths back to win the Tampa Bay Derby last month in his 3-year-old debut. If ever a horse was bred for success at Aqueduct, it’s Tacitus. He’s by 2004 Wood winner Tapit out of the 2013 Gazelle Stakes winner Close Hatches.

Bill Mott trains Tacitus for Juddmonte Farms, and he believes his colt is a natural stayer.

“After he goes seven-eighths of a mile he gets that momentum going,” said Mott, who is winless with seven starters in six runnings of the Wood Memorial.

Haikal, a son of Daaher, brings a three-race winning streak into the Wood, but those wins have come in one-turn races from six furlongs to a mile.

Though he is a half-brother to the Grade 1-winning sprinter Takaful, Haikal gives trainer Kiaran McLaughlin reason to believe he can stretch out.

“Great mind, nice stride, we feel like he might even get better going further,” McLaughlin said. “You never know, but at the very least he should be able to handle the nine furlongs.”

Trainer Jason Servis won the Grade 1 Florida Derby with the aforementioned Maximum Security for Gary and Mary West. In the Wood, he will send out Final Jeopardy for the Wests. A son of 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, Final Jeopardy should improve going farther.

“When they buy yearlings, they buy horses for a mile and a quarter,” Servis said of the Wests. “Whether I sprint them or not, that’s what they’re buying. We thought when we stretched him out he’d run good, and he did.”

Servis also sends out Grumps Little Tots, who has improved since being gelded but has won only a maiden race.

Todd Pletcher has won the Wood five times in the last nine years, including in 2018 with Vino Rosso. He sends out Outshine, who may have moved too soon when second to Tacitus in the Tampa Bay Derby, and Overdeliver, who ran into a buzzsaw in Win Win Win when second in the Pasco Stakes at Tampa on Jan. 19.

Not That Brady was eased in the Gotham when dealing with a quarter crack. Two starts back, he came within a neck of Tax in the Withers.

Hoffa’s Union won his only start by 15 1/2 lengths at Laurel. He was subsequently sold and transferred to Mark Casse.

Joevia was second to Haikal in the Jimmy Winkfield, then ran second to the red-hot Alwaysmining in the Private Terms at Laurel.

Math Wizard, third to Maximum Security in that $16,000 claimer, is taking a huge step up in class after winning two low-level claimers and finishing second in a starter allowance.

The Wood goes as race 10 on an 11-race card that begins at 1 p.m. Eastern and includes the Grade 1 Carter, Grade 2 Gazelle, Grade 3 Bay Shore, and Grade 3 Excelsior.