Woodford Stakes is Wide Open
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Photo: Mathea Kelley
Undrafted winning the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Most of 14 horses in the gate for Oct. 3 Woodford Stakes Presented by Keeneland Select (gr. IIIT) turf sprint will be alongside familiar faces.
Nine of the challengers in the 5 1/2-furlong test have faced two or more of the horses entered in the Woodford in other turf sprints up and down the East Coast, including the top three finishers of Keeneland's springtime sister sprint—the Shakertown Stakes (gr. IIIT).
The lukewarm 4-1 favorite in the Woodford is Undrafted, who won the group I Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot and has placed in two other graded stakes this year. Wes Welker and Sol Kumin's gelded son of Purim is trained by Wesley Ward, whose home base is Keeneland.
Undrafted finished third in last spring's Shakertown behind winner Something Extra and Channel Marker. Both those rivals also are entered Saturday.
Something Extra has not won again since the Shakertown but placed third in the TwinSpires Turf Sprint (gr. IIIT) at Churchill Downs and finished second to Channel Marker, also by the late sire Purim (by Dynaformer), in the Jaipur Invitational Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Belmont Park.
Shore Runner is the morning-line second-choice at 9-2 because the gelding by More Than Ready is coming into the race on a four-racing winning streak, all turf sprints. His most recent wins came at Saratoga Race Course in the Lucky Coin Stakes and the Troy Stakes. Claimed by Brad Grady from Sovereign Stable in May, Shore Runner has won five of his six starts this year. The gelding is trained by Joe Sharp.
Bettors are unlikely to identify a strong favorite considering six of the challengers have strung together at least four consecutive races with Equibase Speed Figures of 100 or higher in their most recent starts of 2015. They are Amelia's Wild Ride, Channel Marker, Mongolian Saturday, Shore Runner, Something Extra, and Undrafted. Sharp Sensation also has consecutive races with 100-plus speed ratings but has only started three times so far this year.
The most consistent runner by this measure is Mongolian Saturday, who finished second by a nose in the Turf Monster Handicap (gr. IIIT) at Parx Racing. The son of Any Given Saturday, owned by Ganbaatar Dagvadorj's Mongolian Stable, ran a 111 in the West Virginia Legislature Chairman's Cup Stakes and another 111 in an Aug. 20 $80,000 allowance/optional claimer at Arlington International Racecourse prior to the 110 in the Turf Monster.