Tacitus restores order with a Wood Memorial 2019 win

Order restored? For the first time since February, a 2019 Kentucky Derby trail favorite won Saturday, with Tacitus ending the drought by taking the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Running outside of Tax in deep stretch, the Juddmonte homebred completed 1 1/8 miles in 1:51.23 under jockey Jose Ortiz.

Both were, quite frankly, lucky to be in such a position after a wild run by longshot Joevia to the first turn but the squeeze on both contenders and nearly caused another, Overdeliver, to stumble.

"Some horses would have been discouraged with what happened on the first turn," said Bill Mott, who trains Tacitus, "and they could have backed out of it or decided they didn't want any part of it after getting roughed up like that."

The Top 2 both entered off stakes victories on the Derby trail, with the former claimer Tax a winner of the Withers (G3) and Tacitus having taken the Tampa Bay Derby (G2). They’re certainly on to Churchill Downs from here.

Haikal, another last-out prep winner, should have the points as well, but did he show enough to run on for third, nipping Math Wizard before the wire?

Not That Brady and Joevia jumped six to seven lengths in front of the field entering the far turn, dueling through fractions of 23.62, 46.91 and 1:11.46 before they gave in at the top of the stretch.

Tacitus took an outside position on Tax, who’s conditioned by Danny Gargan, and wore him down to win it.

"It's not a surprise, but you always hope they show up," Mott said.

"Very rough on the first turn, but fortunately he came out of it in good order," Mott said. "...He had a nice, clear run by himself down the backside. Kind of got his feet back under him and regrouped a little bit."

Not since War of Will took Fair Grounds' Risen Star (G2) back on Feb. 16 had a betting favorite won a Derby prep. And Tacitus, who was off at 5-2 in the field of 11, joined War of Will as well as the only repeat winners on the trail in the new year.

By Tapit, Tacitus is the first foal out of a champion also trained by Mott, Close Hatches. He has now won three straight races.

"We've been (to the Kentucky Derby) five times now and came out of them all with our tail between our legs," said Garrett O'Rourke, general manager for Juddmonte Farms. "We had two good runs, a huge disappointment with Empire Maker (second in 2003), because he was the horse that I felt was the best horse in the field and should have won.

"But it's not easy, and we know that, so we're going to go into it again knowing that it's not easy. We have a legitimate contender now that's bred to be a Derby horse and he's now proving that, hopefully, he is up to that standard."