A Virtual Day at the Races

Making a winning bet is right up there with one of life's great joys. Making the first bet of the season a winning bet is even better. Signs of spring? The Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, now four weeks before the Kentucky Derby. It is Aqueduct's Belmont Day.

We used to make it our seasonal outing, but it's been tough to sell The Assembled on attending Aqueduct, despite it being a superior track to watch races from, over say Belmont. The parking lots seem under constant construction, with casino and track parking competing for spaces. It's been ugly.

The card for the Wood is always good, and packed with stake races. At the start of the America's Day at the Races telecast, Andy Serling, sitting with Acacia Courtney Clement reminisced that he first saw the Wood 46 years ago with his grandmother. My first Wood goes back a bit further, to 1969.

I was there in 1973 when Angle Light saved the betting public's bacon when he won the race and his entry mate, Secretariat finished third. It proved a bit of precursor to Secretariat's problems with mile and an eighth races—the only problem he had.

There once were giveaways on Wood day, the T-shirt and digital watch long falling into the garbage for poor fit, or falling apart. No matter, we generally came out for it. The only day Aqueduct is crowded these last few decades. Wood Memorial day is Aqueduct's rite of spring classic.

The tarps come off the turf courses, and turf racing returns to Queens on Wood Memorial Day.  I bet the winner of the Wood, Mo Donegal on the strength of his Uncle Mo breeding, Todd Pletcher training, and Joel Rosario riding. I didn't even download the past performances. Uncle Mo offspring are tearing up the tracks. He is proving to be a great sire, and I'm sure a good source of income for Mike Repole, who enjoys the game so much as an owner.

Rosario's ride was a beaut, angling out deep in the stretch to run down the front runner Early Voting. Mo Donegal certainly stamped himself to be a Derby horse. The Derby field should boast a good set of possible winners. As the daffodils and forsythia bloom, the Derby picture gets clearer and clearer.

The winner's circle for Mo Donegal was crowded. Donegal Racing must be one of those fractional ownership groups because it looked like the mid-week attendance at Belmont all trying to fit into the photo. A lot of people for a winner's circle; not many for a track attendance.

There were other notable performance on the day. Speaker's Corner running a respectable 1:211/5 in the Carter Handicap, carrying the high weight in the field with 124 pounds, a laughable high weight amount, but that's the way it is these days, winning for fun, at a deserved short price of 75¢ to $1.00.

And to close out the 11-race card, Wit seems to have solved his gate issues and got out there in good order and won the 7 furlong Bayshore by a nose, just nipping Highly Respected at the wire, giving the always exuberant owner Mike Repole another good day.

Perhaps fittingly, there was a brief rain shower that helped create a rainbow that arced over the track. Was it Finian's Rainbow with a pot of gold at the other end? Ask the Donegal people. They would tell you yes, with a leprechaun counting the gold.

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