Zipse: Wood Memorial flips the script in Aqueduct's final year

The Grade 2 Wood Memorial has been much maligned in recent years, and this season’s running had its fair share of naysayers. But as much negative talk as the final edition ever to be run at the Big A received, it turned out to be a pretty key race. 

After finishing third in the Wood Memorial, Ocelli rallied at huge odds to lead in deep stretch of the Kentucky Derby before finishing third. Two weeks later, the second leg of the Triple Crown was absolutely dominated by horses who ran in Aqueduct’s most important 3-year-old race. 

Napoleon Solo, Iron Honor and Ocelli, who finished fifth, seventh and third respectively in the Wood Memorial, came back to run first, second and fourth in Saturday’s $2 million Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park. 

After the first two-thirds of this year’s Triple Crown, horses who ran in the Wood Memorial, which was won by Albus, have filled out 50% of the superfecta spots with a first, second, third and fourth overall in the two races. 

Once a proud and important last stop before the first Saturday in May, there is no stakes race that truly identifies with Aqueduct more than the Wood Memorial. Contested for the 66th and final time this year at the Big A, the race has hosted a long list of champions. 

Triple Crown greats Gallant Fox, Count Fleet, Assault, Secretariat and Seattle Slew all prepped in the Wood Memorial. In recent years, however, things have changed. No winners of the New York prep have won the Kentucky Derby since 2000. 

When I was a kid growing up a big racing fan, there was no prep race that was bigger. Besides Secretariat and Seattle Slew, horses who hopped from Aqueduct to Kentucky Derby stardom in those years included Foolish Pleasure, Bold Forbes and Pleasant Colony. 

Those glory days have come and gone and now Aqueduct is set to close, to be replaced by the new Belmont Park. The sentimental side in me is happy to see that the Big A’s final Wood Memorial actually means something. 

The last horse to win a Grade 1 race at the soon to be shuttered Aqueduct, which he did in last fall’s Champagne Stakes, Napoleon Solo is now a Grade 1 winner at both 2 and 3. He also has done it at both one turn and around two turns. 

Trained by Chad Summers and ridden by Paco Lopez, who is also much maligned, the Gold Square-owned colt is a classic winner who is improving at the right time. I don’t know if it will happen now that he won the Preakness, but I’d still like to see the speedy son of Liam’s Map try the turf at some point. 

Iron Honor could not get by Napoleon Solo down the Laurel Park stretch, but he rebounded nicely from his disappointing finish in the Wood Memorial. The Gotham Stakes (G3) winner had a rough trip into the first turn last time at Aqueduct and now once again looks like a colt with a bright future for trainer Chad Brown. 

And say what you want about the maiden Ocelli, but he has been a solid colt since dropping blinkers three starts back. The handsome son of Connect remains winless through eight career starts, but he rallied from well back to be third in the Wood Memorial and Kentucky Derby and fourth in the Preakness. 

Does all this mean I will be looking for the Wood Memorial horses moving forward in big races such as the Belmont Stakes, Travers Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic? No, I can’t honestly say that it does. 

I have to believe there are better colts out there who did not run in this year’s Preakness. But I still can appreciate that the Wood Memorial was far better than it was originally given credit for. 

It will be a different race when it shifts to Belmont Park in 2027. Most notably, it will become a one-turn affair next season. It’s hard to predict what that will mean for the historic race. Only time will tell. 

After a run of lean years, it’s good to see the Wood Memorial have relevance again in its final edition at Aqueduct.