Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial, 1 1/8 miles, Aqueduct, April 9, 2022
(100 Derby qualifying points for first, 40 for second, 20 for third, 10 for fourth)
Winner: Mo Donegal, by Uncle Mo
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Jockey: Joel Rosario
Owner: Donegal Racing
Beyer Speed Figure: 96
Kentucky Derby hopeful Un Ojo is scheduled to work Saturday in Louisiana, and if his connections are pleased with the move following his troubled Arkansas Derby run he will ship next week to Churchill Downs, trainer Ricky Courville said.
Un Ojo finished eighth in the Arkansas Derby on April 2 at Oaklawn after hitting the rail twice in an incident that led to having staples placed in a shoulder. The staples were removed Thursday, Courville said, and Un Ojo jogged both Friday and Saturday at his Copper Crowne training center base in Louisiana.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Everything is good with Zandon in the aftermath of the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, where the Upstart colt stamped himself as one of the major players for the May 7 Kentucky Derby with his breakthrough victory Saturday.
Baldo Hernandez, the local assistant to trainer Chad Brown, reported Sunday morning that Zandon “ate up everything” after the Blue Grass and was in good stead.
Grade 1, $1 million Blue Grass Stakes, 1 1/8 miles, Keeneland, April 9, 2022
(100 Derby qualifying points for first, 40 for second, 20 for third, 10 for fourth)
Winner: Zandon, by Upstart
Trainer: Chad Brown
Jockey: Flavien Prat
Owner: Jeff Drown
Beyer Speed Figure: 98
Grade 1, $750,500 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby, 1 1/8 miles, Santa Anita, April 9, 2022
(100 Derby qualifying points for first, 40 for second, 20 for third, 10 for fourth)
Winner: Taiba, by Gun Runner
Trainer: Tim Yakteen
Jockey: Mike Smith.
Owner: Zedan Racing Stables
Beyer Speed Figure: 102
ARCADIA, Calif. – Tim Yakteen advised against doing it. Gary Young advised against doing it. Amr Zedan heard it all, brushed it aside. Amr Zedan pays the bills. He who pays the bills gets final say. Zedan got his way.
And then on a warm Saturday afternoon, with the heat turned up on an audacious bid, the colt Taiba rewarded Zedan’s faith and won the Grade 1, $750,500 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby in only his second start, beating his accomplished stablemate Messier and four others.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - For two days, Jerry Crawford, the owner of Mo Donegal, watched the dirt races at Aqueduct be won by horses who were on or close to the pace.
In Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial, Mo Donegal, as is his wont, was at the back of the pack, while Early Voting was loose on the lead through solid, though not taxing, fractions. In upper stretch, Joel Rosario had moved Mo Donegal into second. At the eighth pole, Rosario tipped Mo Donegal to the outside, the colt lengthened his stride and he caught Early Voting to win the Wood by a neck.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Over the last two decades, they’ve rarely run a Wood Memorial that didn’t have a Todd Pletcher horse in it. Since 2002, Pletcher has run at least one horse in 18 of the 19 runnings of the Wood, missing only 2005. The pandemic canceled the 2020 running.
More significantly, Pletcher has won the Wood six times – one shy of legendary trainer Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons’s record – including last year when Pletcher’s 72-1 shot Bourbonic finished first and his 14-1 shot Dynamic One second.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – This is what it comes to. A long winter of waiting and thinking and planning and hoping will boil down to a critical span of less than two minutes when the Blue Grass Stakes is run Saturday at Keeneland.
Smile Happy and Zandon, the two favorites in a field of 12 Blue Grass runners, have been regarded for months as major contenders for the 148th Kentucky Derby. Now would be a good time to prove it.
