Wood Memorial Purse Lowered to $750,000
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Chelsea Durand
The Wood Memorial, won last year by Outwork, will have a purse of $750,000 for 2017
The Wood Memorial (G2), which was downgraded from its prior grade 1 status for 2017, had its purse lowered to $750,000 this year but remains the highlight of the spring meet at Aqueduct Racetrack.
The 1 1/8-mile Wood Memorial had been contested with a purse of at least $1 million since 2011, when it was bolstered from $750,000 to $1.02 million. It was announced in early December that both the Wood Memorial and Keeneland's Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2)— both key preps on the Road to the Kentucky Derby—were being downgraded by the American Graded Stakes Committee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders' Association.
ANGST: Blue Grass, Wood Memorial Downgraded
The Wood and the $400,000 Carter Handicap (G1) over seven furlongs headline the April 8 lineup at Aqueduct, which features five graded stakes. Also on tap for Wood Memorial Day are the grade 2, $300,000 Gazelle for sophomore fillies at 1 1/8 miles, as well as pair of grade 3 races—the $250,000 Bay Shore for 3-year-old sprinters at seven furlongs and the $150,000 Excelsior for 4-year-olds and up going 1 1/4 miles.
Supported by 21 other stakes totaling nearly $3.5 million in purse money when racing moves to the main track, Aqueduct's 17-day spring-meet stakes schedule will commence with the third annual New York Claiming Championship Day April 1, featuring 10 starter allowance races with purses worth nearly $700,000.
Turf racing returns Wood Memorial weekend, with the second running of the $100,000 Danger's Hour for 4-year-olds and up at a mile on the grass April 9.
Rounding out the graded stakes for the 2017 spring meet are two traditional graded stakes for fillies and mares in the grade 3, $200,000 Top Flight Invitational Handicap at 1 1/8 miles April 2, and the grade 3, $150,000 Distaff Handicap at seven furlongs April 9.
The $100,000 Memories of Silver for 3-year-old fillies on the grass and the $100,000 New York Stallion Series Times Square Division will bring down the curtain on closing day of the spring meet at the Big A, April 23, before live racing moves to Belmont Park April 28.