Turfway: Miss Pickums a winner

For veteran jockey Charlie Woods Jr., a run of incredibly poor luck was perpetuated in Nov. 2000, when a knee injury forced him to miss the winning mount aboard Miss Pickums in the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs.

The injury was the second of three that nagged Woods during a three-year span that seriously threatened to end his career. But Saturday, in a story of poetic justice, Woods rode Miss Pickums to an emphatic victory in the $50,000 Likely Exchange Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky. The winner returned $8.40 after finishing a mile in 1:37.78 over a fast track.

The win was the first in a stakes for Woods since before Justin Vitek filled in for him in the Golden Rod. It also was his third win in three mounts on the Saturday card, ending an 0-for-31 start to the Turfway winter-spring meet.

Miss Pickums, owned by Jan, Mace, and Samantha Siegel and trained by Paul McGee, got a perfect trip from just off the pace to finish 3 3/4 lengths ahead of Seven Four Seven, the 2-1 favorite in a field of 11. Growth Stock was third, another 2 1/2 lengths back.

Miss Pickums, a 4-year-old filly by Afternoon Deelites, had been 0 for 5 since the Golden Rod.