Wood Memorial likely next for Gotham winner Enticed

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – New York’s reconstructed winter road to the Kentucky Derby has been smooth sailing for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin and Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing.

Five weeks after winning the Grade 3 Withers with Avery Island, the trainer-owner tandem struck again Saturday with Enticed, who won the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes by 2 3/4 lengths at Aqueduct.

Now, McLaughlin and Godolphin will set their sights on the Grade 2 Wood Memorial on April 7, the “most likely” next target for Enticed, McLaughlin said Sunday.

With all racing this winter conducted on Aqueduct’s main track, the New York Racing Association had to adjust the distances of its trio of stakes races for 3-year-olds formerly run over the inner track leading up to the Wood Memorial.

The Jerome, formerly run as a two-turn race at a mile and 70 yards, was run as a one-turn mile; the Withers, previously run at 1 1/16 miles around two turns, was lengthened to 1 1/8 miles; and the Gotham, run at 1 1/16 miles around two turns since 2006, was cut back to a one-turn mile, a distance it had been run at for decades. Coincidentally, the last time the Gotham was run at a mile, in 2005, McLaughlin won it with Like Now.

Enticed, under Junior Alvarado, took advantage of his outside post in a field of nine Saturday to work out a clear trip en route to winning the Gotham and earning enough qualifying points to earn a spot in the May 5 Kentucky Derby. Enticed earned 50 points Saturday and now has 63 total under the system utilized by Churchill Downs to determine the Derby field in the event that more than 20 horses enter the race.

“It worked out the way you wanted; it was fabulous to be nine of nine, the opposite of the Holy Bull,” said McLaughlin, whose colt drew the rail that day and had a difficult inside trip. “It was a great trip.”

On Monday, Enticed was scheduled to make another trip, this one by plane to south Florida, where he will train at the Palm Meadows training center.

“Just because he did so well from here to there,” McLaughlin said from Florida. “So, we’ll train here and look at the Wood Memorial most likely.”

In the Wood Memorial, Enticed – who was assigned a 95 Beyer Speed Figure for the Gotham – will make his first try at 1 1/8 miles, a distance McLaughlin believes will be fine for the son of Medaglia d’Oro and It’s Tricky, both Grade 1 winners at 1 1/8 miles.

“I don’t think it’s an issue,” McLaughlin said. “We were more worried about turning back to the mile. He’s a big, big colt with a big stride.”

Last November, Enticed won the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs going 1 1/16 miles around two turns. On Saturday, Enticed became the sixth horse out of that race to win a stakes. Among the other notables are Quip, who won Saturday’s Tampa Bay Derby; Promises Fulfilled, who won the Fountain of Youth; and Bravazo, who won the Risen Star.

Gotham runner-up Old Time Revival, the 35-1 longshot who set the pace before giving way in the stretch, returned to his base at Laurel Park on Saturday night. Trainer Ken Decker said Sunday morning that Old Time Revival came out the race in good shape and the son of Brethren will be aimed at the Wood, which will be the colt’s first shot around two turns and at 1 1/8 miles.

“We’re moving forwardly towards the Derby; we still got a ways to go,” Decker said. “It’ll be our first time trying two turns, but I think he showed he could go that far. At this point, we’re going to point that way and see what happens in the next couple of weeks.”

Free Drop Billy, who finished third as the favorite in the Gotham, was scheduled to return to south Florida on Monday. Trainer Dale Romans said he was disappointed but not discouraged by Free Drop Billy’s performance, in which he was beaten 5 3/4 lengths.

Romans said Free Drop Billy would make his next start in the Blue Grass at Keeneland on April 7. Free Drop Billy won last year’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland.

Firenze Fire, who finished fourth in the Gotham, took a lot of dirt and had one of his eyes closed after the race, according to trainer Jason Servis. Servis said Sunday that the “eye looks really good, no scratches, no ulcers.”

Servis said if the horse is healthy, “I’ll do my best to make the Wood.”

Firenze Fire has participated in all three 3-year-old stakes races at Aqueduct, winning the Jerome and finishing second in the Withers before his fourth in the Gotham. Owner Ron Lombardi wants to make the Derby, and Firenze Fire would likely need a top-three finish in the Wood to secure the necessary qualifying points. Firenze Fire currently has 29 points.

The Wood purse would go from $750,000 to $1 million if Firenze Fire or any other Grade 1 winner participates in the race under a policy announced earlier this year by NYRA.

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