The Wood Memorial Stakes is an American flat Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held annually at Aqueduct Racetrack in Jamaica, New York. It is currently a Grade I race run over a distance of 9 furlongs on dirt.
The Wood Memorial is currently one of five Grade I races run as preps for the US Triple Crown. For whatever reason, only fourteen of the last twenty-one winners (67%) have been able to run in the first leg of the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby. In comparison; the Blue Grass Stakes has had twenty-one (100%), the Florida Derby has had twenty (95%), the Santa Anita Derby has had eighteen (86%), and the Arkansas Derby has had seventeen of their last twenty-one winners (81%) who got to the starting gate of the Kentucky Derby.
The winners of the Wood Memorial who were unable to run in the Kentucky Derby were Toby's Corner with lameness in his left hind leg (2011), Eskendereya with a soft tissue injury in his left front leg (2010), I Want Revenge with a ligament injury to his right front ankle (2009), Buddha with separation of the hoof wall from the laminae of his left front leg (2002), Coronado's Quest due to his bad behavior and the circus-like atmosphere at Churchill Downs (1998), Irgun with an abscess in his right front hoof (1994), Cahill Road with a pulled suspensory ligament in his left front ankle (1991), and Leroy S. who had knee surgery (1984).
On the positive side, the Wood Memorial has had eleven winners go on to capture victory in the Kentucky Derby, four of whom captured the Triple Crown. The most famous loser in the Wood Memorial was Secretariat who finished third in 1973.
It was named to honor Eugene D. Wood, a New York State politician and horse racing enthusiast who had been a founder and past president of the old Jamaica Racetrack where the race was run until 1960.
From 1925 to 1939 it was run over a distance of one mile and seventy yards then at 1 1/16 miles from 1940 to 1951 after which it was changed to its present 1 1/8 miles. All entrants currently carry a weight of 123 lb.
The race was run in two divisions in 1944, 1945, 1947, 1974, and 1983.
Read more about Wood Memorial Stakes: Records, Winners of The Wood Memorial Stakes
Famous quotes containing the words wood, memorial and/or stakes:
“If the axe is not sharp, it doesn’t matter how hard the wood is.”
—Chinese proverb.
“When I received this [coronation] ring I solemnly bound myself in marriage to the realm; and it will be quite sufficient for the memorial of my name and for my glory, if, when I die, an inscription be engraved on a marble tomb, saying, “Here lieth Elizabeth, which reigned a virgin, and died a virgin.””
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“This man was very clever and quick to learn anything in his line. Our tent was of a kind new to him; but when he had once seen it pitched, it was surprising how quickly he would find and prepare the pole and forked stakes to pitch it with, cutting and placing them right the first time, though I am sure that the majority of white men would have blundered several times.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)