Uncle Heavy begins prep for Wood Memorial

Uncle Heavy, the Grade 3 Withers Stakes winner at Aqueduct on Feb. 3, had his first work since that race on Saturday, breezing five furlongs in 1:02.09 at Parx as he prepares for a start in the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 6.

“He did really well. Very happy with the way he went, nice, easy five eighths, finished up real good,” trainer Butch Reid said. “We had a little something for him to run at the first part of it, he rated nicely off that horse and when the time came, he went right by him and opened up. It was kind of a dead track this morning, he should get a lot out of it.”

The day Uncle Heavy won the Withers, a quarantine was put in place on a barn at Belmont Park due to a case of equine herpesvirus. That prompted tracks in the Mid-Atlantic region to prevent horses racing or stabled in New York from shipping to their facilities. That included Parx, where Uncle Heavy is stabled.

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Thus, Uncle Heavy had to spend three weeks on a farm with no track available for him to train. Reid said Uncle Heavy didn’t lose any fitness as he was able to take advantage of a jogging machine as well as being turned out in a paddock.

“He actually put on some weight, he’s big, robust and strong,” Reid said. “Couldn’t be any happier where we are right now.”

Reid said he should be able to get two more works into Uncle Heavy before the Wood.

Meanwhile, Reid said Maximus Meridius, who finished fourth in the Grade 3 Gotham at Aqueduct on March 2, is being pointed to the $175,000 Bay Shore Stakes, a listed seven-furlong race on the Wood undercard.

Reid said Maximus Meridius would likely have just one work in between the Gotham and the Bay Shore.

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