Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Brooklyn Strong finally gets started in Wood Memorial
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It will be 119 days between starts for Brooklyn Strong when he makes his 3-year-old debut in Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, but his trainer, Danny Velazquez, couldn’t be more confident in his gelding’s chances for success.
“In my head, I’m going in for the kill, I’m not even thinking of losing,” Velazquez said by phone from Parx Racing where he is based. “I’m very confident, extremely confident in my horse. I see him doing everything I want him to do.”
On paper, Brooklyn Strong, a New York-bred by 2014 Wood Memorial winner Wicked Strong, is the most accomplished horse in what is expected to be a nine- or 10-horse field in the Wood. He is 3 for 4 with a victory in the Grade 2 Remsen, run here on Dec. 6, and the Sleepy Hollow against New York-breds on Oct. 24 at Belmont Park.
The Remsen victory, where he beat Ten for Ten by a head, earned a little more cred when Known Agenda, third, beaten nine lengths in the Remsen, won last Saturday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park.
“I loved seeing that,” Velazquez said.
Brooklyn Strong’s layoff entering the Wood – which like the Remsen is run at 1 1/8 miles – was certainly not by design. Following the Remsen, Velazquez gave Brooklyn Strong some wellearned time off with the idea of bringing him back in the Withers on Feb. 6. But the horse and then the weather didn’t cooperate.
“After the Remsen, when we got him back in training, we noticed he lost a lot of weight, we didn’t know why,” Velazquez said. “We pulled a blood, it wasn’t good. The doctor said sometimes those big races take a lot out of a horse, so we opted to give him time.”
Brooklyn Strong basically started back in training in February, a month where snowy weather made it difficult to maintain a consistent pattern. Brooklyn Strong didn’t have his first breeze until Feb. 26, a three-furlong move in 36.89 seconds.
March has been better, with Brooklyn Strong breezing four times, including a six-furlong move Saturday in 1:13.42, which Velazquez said was done in company with another horse, Nileator, a 9-year-old who has won eight races.
“I put a horse next to him to make sure that horse pressed his lungs, that way he could feel the pressure of a race,” Velazquez said. “It’s never going to be the same, obviously, until you run, but I wanted him to feel that pressure again. It’s easy for a horse to work by themselves but they got to feel a little pressure on them to let them know ‘Hey, it’s show time.’ ”
Brooklyn Strong did win going a two-turn mile at first asking last September, albeit in a $40,000 claiming race at Delaware Park. His lone loss was a third-place finish in the Bertram F. Bongard, where the horse was a bit too keen early, Velazquez said.
Brooklyn Strong will have his fifth rider in as many starts as Manny Franco takes the call.
“The only negative going into this race is that it’s not ideal to come into a big race like that off a layoff,” Velazquez said. “You’d normally have a race underneath you, whether you won or lost you’d have it, and we don’t. But with that said this horse has done nothing wrong all the way up until now. Moving forward he really seems like he has the gas to do this thing.”
Brooklyn Strong, who did earn 10 qualifying points toward the Kentucky Derby by virtue of his Remsen win, would most likely need a toptwo finish on Saturday to get into the Derby. The Wood offers its top four finishers Derby points on a 100-40-20-10 basis.
Should Brooklyn Strong make it to Louisville, the task of winning the Derby would be even more daunting. According to the Derby media guide, horses with only one start as a 3-year-old prior to the Kentucky Derby are 0 for 24 since 1937.
Capo Kane to add blinkers
Capo Kane will make his fourth consecutive trip to Aqueduct when he runs in the Wood Memorial. Capo Kane won the Jerome on New Year’s Day, finished third in the Grade 3 Withers, and was sixth in the Grade 3 Gotham.
Trainer Harold Wyner said he wants Capo Kane to be forwardly placed and to help achieve that objective he will add blinkers to the son of Street Sense for the Wood.
“He’s a forwardly placed horse. He needs to be out there and set his own pace and run his race,” Wyner said.
With Dylan Davis sidelined, Wyner will bring jockey Jeremey Laprida up from Parx Racing for the ride. Laprida was board for Capo Kane’s first two starts, including a 4 1/2-length maiden score on Nov. 25.
Also coming from Parx is Market Maven, a Pennsylvaniabred gelding by Super Ninety Nine who has won his last two starts, including an open first-level allowance where he defeated Bourbonic, a Todd Pletcher-trained runner who is listed as a possible Wood starter.
The other confirmed Wood starters include Candy Man Rocket, Crowded Trade, Dynamic One, Prevalence, Risk Taking, and Weyburn.