Kentucky Derby road: Wood Memorial field, posts, jockeys

Withers winner Captain Cook and Gotham (G3) runner-up Sand Devil will be challenged by Bob Baffert-trained shipper Rodríguez and undefeated colts Passion Rules and Grande in the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial, a win-and-you’re-in qualifier Saturday at Aqueduct for Kentucky Derby 2025. 

A field of 12 3-year-olds was entered and post positions drawn Sunday for the two-turn, 1 1/8-mile feature that awards 100-50-25-15-10 Derby qualifying points to the top five finishers.

Click here for Aqueduct entries and results.

Captain Cook, a Practical Joke colt owned by Vinnie Viola’s St. Elias Stable and trained by Rick Dutrow, is 2-for-2 at Aqueduct. He won a maiden race by 9 1/4 lengths in December before his 2 1/4-length triumph Feb. 1 in the Withers over the same course and distance as the Wood. Manny Franco keeps the ride and will go from post 2.

Sand Devil led briefly before finishing second March 1 in the Gotham covering a one-turn mile at the Big A. He had gone 3-for-3 over the same track against New York-bred rivals. Owned by Chester Broman, the Violence colt is trained by Linda Rice and will be ridden from post 5 by José Lezcano.

Rodríguez, who is part of Baffert’s deep bench of 3-year-olds, broke his maiden on second asking Jan. 4 at Santa Anita. That was where he finished second to stablemate Citizen Bull in the Robert B. Lewis (G3) and third to Kentucky Derby futures favorite Journalism in the San Felipe (G2). Owned by the SF Racing partnership, the Authentic colt will be ridden for the first time by Mike Smith from the rail post.

Passion Rules, a Friesan Fire colt who is 3-for-3 for trainer Brad Cox, and Grande, a 2-for-2 son of Curlin who will be saddled by Todd Pletcher, will make their stakes debut Saturday.

The Wood Memorial will be the 12th of 13 races on the Big A card Saturday.