Wood Memorial: Dutrow puts finishing touches on Captain Cook in half-mile work
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ELMONT, N.Y. - Captain Cook, among the favorites for Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, worked a half-mile in 48.22 seconds Tuesday morning over the Belmont Park training track.
Under jockey Manny Franco, Captain Cook went in splits of 12.15 seconds, 23.90, and came home his final quarter in 24.32 over a track rated good. With the Wood four days away, Captain Cook was not asked to gallop out.
“Looked like he was just galloping along,” trainer Rick Dutrow said. ”[Franco] said he’s ready.”
Tuesday’s work was the seventh for Captain Cook since he won the Withers Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths at Aqueduct on Feb. 1. According to Dutrow, Tuesday’s move was similar to most of the works Captain Cook has had in recent weeks.
“He’s been looking like that for a long time. He looks very good, looks like he’s just doing it freely,” Dutrow said. “He looks good doing it, he’s been looking good doing it.”
Captain Cook is listed as the 7-2 second choice behind California shipper Rodriguez (5-2) on the morning line of David Aragona. But with two wins over Aqueduct’s main track, including one in the slop - conditions that could be in play Saturday given the early forecast - Captain Cook could vie for favoritism in the field of 12.
Meanwhile, Dutrow said he wasn’t 100 percent sure if McAfee would run in the Wood if the track came up wet.
“I told the owners it might rain, it might be an off track, I don’t know how that’s going to work for him, I just don’t know,” Dutrow said. “I’d much rather play things safe with my horses, which means I don’t like running them on off tracks unless they’re proven over it.
“So he’s got something to face, the owners said they were going to call me today and just keep monitoring the weather and see if they want to run him. I told them, right now, the horse is doing better than I’ve ever seen him. So, it’s going to be up to them.”
McAfee, a half-brother to 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna, is coming out of a fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 Gotham, his first start in more than three months.
* Rodriguez was scheduled to arrive in New York later Tuesday following a cross-country flight from California. Rodriguez, who will remove blinkers for this start, is coming out of a third-place finish in the Grade 2 San Felipe on March 1.
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