Mo Donegal heads Pletcher trio in Wood Memorial
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Over the last two decades, they’ve rarely run a Wood Memorial that didn’t have a Todd Pletcher horse in it. Since 2002, Pletcher has run at least one horse in 18 of the 19 runnings of the Wood, missing only 2005. The pandemic canceled the 2020 running.
More significantly, Pletcher has won the Wood six times – one shy of legendary trainer Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons’s record – including last year when Pletcher’s 72-1 shot Bourbonic finished first and his 14-1 shot Dynamic One second.
This year, Pletcher will send out three of the eight runners in the Wood, New York’s fourth and final points-scoring race for 3-year-olds trying to make the Kentucky Derby on May 7 at Churchill Downs. The Wood, which has not produced a Kentucky Derby winner since Funny Cide in 2003, offers 170 points to its top four finishers (100-40-20-10) toward the Derby.
Pletcher will send out potential favorite Mo Donegal, who won last December’s Grade 2 Remsen here at the Wood distance of 1 1/8 miles. Pletcher also will start longshots Golden Code, third in the Gotham, and Long Term, an 0-for-4 maiden owned by Mike Repole, who owned two of Pletcher’s previous Wood winners, Outwork and Vino Rosso.
Mo Donegal, a son of Uncle Mo owned by Donegal Racing, enters the Wood off a third in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes on Feb. 5 at Gulfstream Park. He was intended to run in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes there March 5, but developed a temperature the day after entries and was scratched. He might not have run regardless as he drew post 12, which is a distinct disadvantage going 1 1/16 miles around two turns at Gulfstream.
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“That little hiccup, I’m not really going to say it cost us that much because we were on the fence whether we were going to run in the Fountain of Youth or not,” Pletcher said. “The original plan was to put ourselves in a position by running in the Holy Bull to come back in a spot around April 2 or April 9. I think it’s worked out fine, and I was really pleased with the way he worked” Saturday.
In the Holy Bull, Mo Donegal finished third behind White Abarrio and Simplification. That result looks better when you consider White Abarrio and Simplification came back to finish first and third in last Saturday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby.
In the Holy Bull, Pletcher felt Mo Donegal ran “spotty” but overall gave a respectable effort.
“I thought the last sixteenth of a mile was the best part of the race for him,” Pletcher said. “He kind of turned for home with too much to do. He’s the kind of horse that would benefit from a truly run race with a good pace where he can settle and make one run.”
Joel Rosario will ride Mo Donegal from the rail. Irad Ortiz Jr. had ridden him previously but was committed to ride Saturday at Keeneland.
There should be pace in the Wood. Early Voting won the Grade 3 Withers going 1 1/8 miles on the front end here Feb. 5. He also attended the pace when he won his maiden Dec. 18. Those are his only two starts.
“I look at him as a horse that doesn’t need to be on the lead, but I think he’s definitely going to be a horse that through his career is going to be forwardly placed,” said Chad Brown, trainer of Early Voting.
Long Term has been forward in all four of his starts – all second-place finishes. Pletcher is taking the blinkers off for this race.
“If you look at his figures, they’re not that far off,” Pletcher said. “This is one time to take a chance.”
With 50 qualifying points from his victory in the Gotham on March 6, Morello has pretty much secured a spot in the Kentucky Derby field. Having won all three of his starts around one turn and against inferior competition than he meets here, there is still more to prove.
“I think he deserves this opportunity. We’re anxious to see how good he is,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “I think it’s a far more competitive field than who he’s beat in the past, but he’s won very easily. We’ll be anxious to watch the Wood. I think it’s a very good race this year.”
Talkin’ Man, in 1995, is the last horse to win both the Gotham and the Wood when the Gotham was a one-turn mile. The Gotham was run as a two-turn, 1 1/16-mile race from 2006-17.
Barese, like Morello, is 3 for 3 and has never tried two turns. This also will be his first start against open company, but he has polished off his races nicely in both the Rego Park and Gander stakes under Dylan Davis, who again rides for trainer Mike Maker.
Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. has shipped in both A. P.’s Secret and Skippylongstocking from Florida for the Wood. A. P.’s Secret was a troubled seventh in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, but even Joseph admitted his horse was done by the time the trouble occurred.
Skippylongstocking got a super-hot pace in which to close when he won a 1 1/8-mile allowance on March 2 at Gulfstream.
“It was an ideal setup for him, but he still had to do it,” Joseph said. “It was a stamina kind of race, you had to stay the trip.”
The Wood goes as the eighth on an 11-race card that begins at 12:50 p.m. Eastern and includes the Grade 1 Carter Handicap and four other stakes. The Wood will be the first of three Derby points-scoring races as part of a 90-minute broadcast on NBC (4:30-6 p.m. Eastern) that will include the Blue Grass from Keeneland and the Santa Anita Derby.