Joseph Duo Ready for Wood Memorial

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. enjoyed great success on last year's Wood Memorial Day card at the Big A, capturing the Carter Handicap (G1) with Mischevious Alex  and the Bay Shore Stakes (G3) with Drain the Clock . On April 9, he will saddle a pair of longshots in Gentry Farms' A.P.'s Secret and Daniel Alonso's Skippylongstocking  in the $750,000 Wood Memorial Stakes presented by Resorts World Casino (G2).

Manny Franco will have the call aboard A.P.'s Secret and Junior Alvarado will pilot Skippylongstocking in the 100-40-20-10 Kentucky Derby qualifier as Joseph looks to add to a Derby contender list that includes Saturday's Curlin Florida Derby (G1) hero White Abarrio .

A.P.'s Secret enters from a troubled seventh in the March 5 Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) in which he pressed from third position before clipping heels at the quarter-pole and dropping back.

"He came out of that race well and we couldn't really use that bumping as an excuse. He was losing his spot when it happened, but he did get bumped pretty hard," Joseph said. "I think because he's such a big horse that he was able to take the bump from the inside horse that came out and hit him. He bounced out well and he's worked well since."

Joseph said A.P.'s Secret, who worked a half-mile in :49.15 the morning of April 3 at Gulfstream Park, should appreciate the added distance. The Cupid   colt captured a one mile allowance optional claiming contest at Gulfstream two starts back.

"He always trained like this distance will be to his liking," Joseph said. "He didn't run like that his first time going two turns, but I feel like distance is his forte. The longer the better for him."

Skippylongstocking breezed five-eighths in 1:00.40 Saturday at Palm Meadows Training Center. The more experienced of Joseph's contenders boasts a record of 8-2-1-1 with all but one of those starts coming at Gulfstream Park.

The son of Exaggerator relished the 1 1/8-mile trip when landing an allowance optional claimer by 3 3/4-lengths March 2.

Barese Makes Final Preparations for Wood Memorial

Paradise Farms Corp. and David Staudacher's Barese  drilled five furlongs Saturday in his final work for the Wood Memorial.

A son of the late Laoban, Barese covered the five-eighths over the training track at Belmont Park in 1:03.10. The work came one week after a sharp drill in :59.98 at the same distance.

The New York-bred Barese has put together a perfect resume from three starts, with all of his wins coming against state-bred company. After graduating first time out last May, the colt has put together back-to-back stakes wins in the Jan. 9 Rego Park Stakes and Feb. 12 Gander Stakes to kick off his 3-year-old campaign.

Jockey Dylan Davis has ridden Barese to his two stakes victories and will be aboard once again in the Wood Memorial, a race the jockey has contested twice before. His two previous finishes were a fifth aboard Heartfullofstars in 2018 and a seventh aboard Hoffa's Union in 2019.

Should Barese earn enough points to qualify for the Kentucky Derby, Davis could be on his way to Churchill Downs to make his first Run for the Roses on May 7.

Davis said while he is excited at the possibility of a Kentucky Derby mount, he will focus on the Wood Memorial before anything else.

"I'm just trying to ride a good, steady race," said Davis. "We'll see what happens. If he wins, then it will be one of my dreams to go to the Derby. It would mean a lot. We'll definitely take this race first—one race at a time and we'll go from there."