OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The favorite is marooned on the outside in a bulky 12-horse field. The second choice is parked on the rail and coming off a poor effort. As has been the case in recent years, the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct is ripe for chaos. With a golden ticket to the Kentucky Derby awaiting the winner, a near certain spot in the Derby starting gate for the runner-up, and the lack of a standout, Saturday’s $750,000 Wood Memorial drew 13 runners though one, Ottinho, will scratch to run in the Blue Grass. The Wood offers its top five finishers qualifying points (100-50-25-15-10) to the Kentucky Derby. Of the 12 in the field, only Iron Honor, with 50 points from winning the Gotham, seems assured a spot in the 20-horse starting gate on the first Saturday in May. Iron Honor has to deal with post 12 on Saturday. The Gotham is run as a one-turn mile whereas the Wood is run at 1 1/8 miles around two turns. That may explain why Gotham winners are 0 for 10 since I Want Revenge last pulled off the double in 2009. Before him, Talkin Man in 1995 and Irgun in 1994 were Gotham-Wood winners. :: DRF Road to the Derby Package Available Now! Save 37% on key handicapping essentials through Kentucky Derby day. In addition to being parked outside, Iron Honor lacks experience. He won a six-furlong maiden race in December and the Gotham by one length over a modest group Feb. 28. Trainer Chad Brown said Iron Honor had an interrupted training schedule leading up to the Gotham and pressed a solid pace while between horses in that race, so the effort was better than it may seem. “I’m confident the horse will handle the extra distance and the two turns, he’s certainly bred to,” Brown said. “He’s training really well. I’d say from the Gotham to the Wood, this is the most consistent work schedule he’s had since I had him. I would predict he’d move forward because of that.” Brown is obviously not thrilled with post 12. Hit Show, the 2023 Wood favorite, got beat a nose when breaking from post 12. Napoleon Solo, who won last year’s Grade 1 Champagne here at a mile, comes into the Wood off a fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park. Perhaps he needed the race. Having drawn the rail, he will need to break better Saturday than he did at Gulfstream to have his best chance. The good news for him is the last two Wood winners – Rodriguez and Resilience – broke from the rail. The Wood will be his first try at 1 1/8 miles. “I’m going to give him that opportunity because he shows enough to me in the morning in his gallop-outs and the way he does things,” trainer Chad Summers said. “I’m optimistic he can do it, but at the end of the day the results will speak for themselves on Saturday. You just hope you break from post 1.” Talk to Me Jimmy won the Withers by 11 lengths at odds of 12-1 on Feb. 6. He was making his first start in three months and first around two turns. His victory may have been bias-aided, but Grittiness, the runner-up, did come back to run second in the Virginia Derby and Schoolyardsuperman, fourth in the Withers, came back to run second in a Sunday allowance with a 99 Beyer Speed Figure. The two months between races is by design. It keeps Talk to Me Jimmy at home and at 1 1/8 miles. “I’m happy the way the horse is coming into the race. He doesn’t miss a beat since the Withers,” trainer Rudy Rodriguez said. “He’s been taking everything we’ve given him.” :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Talk to Me Jimmy breaks from post 2, so it figures he and Napoleon Solo will leave the gate running. So, it seems, will Buetane, who trainer Bob Baffert shipped to New York following a fourth-place finish with a traffic-filled trip in the Virginia Derby three weeks ago. “He’s a speed horse, he needs to be out there in front,” said Baffert, who won last year’s Wood in front-running fashion with Rodriguez. “Martin [Garcia], take them as far as you can.” Lord Miles won the 2023 Wood at odds of 59-1, Bourbonic upset the 2021 edition at 72-1. Albus and Ocelli are among the live longshots in this year’s field. Albus, trained by Riley Mott, is a son of sprint specialist Yaupon, so 1 1/8 miles might seem a reach. But Albus won a mile and 40-yard maiden race at Tampa by 6 3/4 lengths and galloped out terrific. “I think he’ll go a mile and a half frankly,” Mott said. “The way he finished up that race, the rider said he had to have the outrider help pulling him up. Then he said the horse tried to run off galloping back. He’s got a lot of stamina despite having Yaupon on top.” According to the New York Racing Association, Teufel (1936) is the lone maiden to win the Wood. Ocelli is winless in five starts, including a sixth-place finish in the Sam Davis, a race from which first-place finisher Renegade came back to win the Arkansas Derby and third-place finisher The Puma took the Tampa Bay Derby and was beaten a nose in the Florida Derby. Ocelli finished sixth in the Virginia Derby. He was in contention until the eighth pole when he turned his head and drifted out in front of Buetane. Trainer Whit Beckman believes the horse was trying to look around his blinkers, equipment he will remove Saturday. “I’m hoping we got him to the point where maturity might kick in,” Beckman said. “I think he’ll finish much better if we have him run straight down the lane.” It might only be fitting if Todd Pletcher won the last Wood Memorial to be held at Aqueduct. From 2010-22, Pletcher won this race seven times and is one shy of the record set by Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons. Saturday, Pletcher sends out Courting, an impeccably bred son of Curlin who through four starts has been disappointing. :: Access morning workout reports straight from the tracks and get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports He was fourth, with trouble, in the Grade 2 Remsen last December and he didn’t break well or finish when sixth in the Grade 2 Risen Star on Feb. 14 at Fair Grounds. Pletcher put blinkers on for that race; he is taking them off for this one. Bravaro was second to Nearly in the Holy Bull and fourth behind Commandment and Chief Wallabee in the Fountain of Youth. Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. is adding blinkers to Bravaro’s equipment for the Wood. Steel, trained by Bill Mott, comes off a maiden win in his lone start at Gulfstream. Minorinconvenience, trained by Amelia Green, was second in the Gander Stakes for New York-breds. Right to Party, trained by Kenny McPeek, was third in the Gotham, while Red Zone Runner has been sent in by trainer Hugo Padilla from Parx Racing, where he won the City of Brotherly Love Stakes by 15 1/2 lengths in the slop. The forecast for Saturday calls for dry conditions, and in the case of the Wood, a 75 percent chance of chaos. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.