Wood Memorial

ARCADIA, Calif. — Goldencents won the Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby over even-money favorite Flashback by11⁄ lengths on Saturday, giving co-owner and Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino a Kentucky Derby contender and two wins on the day.

Ridden by Kevin Krigger, Goldencents ($15) ran11⁄ miles in 1 minute, 48.76 seconds.

The Louisville team rallied to beat Wichita State 72-68 in the national semifinals at the Final Four in Atlanta to complete Pitino’s day.

Goldencents chased pacesetter Super Ninety Nine most of the way around before swinging to the outside to make his move on the turn for home. He had enough left when the gray Flashback came to him in the stretch.

The outcome was quite different from the San Felipe on March 9, when Goldencents and Flashback chased a suicidal pace.

Hear the Ghost won that race by a half-length, but he was scratched earlier in the week with a knee injury. Flashback finished second and Goldencents was fourth that day.

This time, Flashback was again the runner-up. Super Ninety Nine was another 8 lengths back in third. Bob Baffert trains both horses.

Baffert also saddled fifthplace Power Broker in the eight-horse field and was de- nied a record seventh win in the West’s leading prep for the Kentucky Derby.

“We’re going to see how he comes out of it,” Baffert said of Flashback. “He was still running at the end. He’s still a young horse, and we’ll wait for the dust to settle. He had every chance to win today and couldn’t get to that horse.”

NEW YORK — Verrazano ($3.60) crossed his final bridge on the road to the Kentucky Derby with a narrow victory in the Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial that likely sends the colt to Churchill Downs as the horse to beat on the first Saturday in May.

Sweeping into the lead around the far turn, Verrazano held off the challenges of Vyjack and Normandy Invasion and improved his record to 4-0. The 3-year-old trained by Todd Pletcher won by three-quarters of a length over the Javier Castellano-ridded Normandy Invasion, who nipped Vyjack for second and likely punched his own ticket to the Derby.

“He hasn’t done anything wrong so far,” Pletcher said of Verrazano. “There’s some more preps to go, but I would say right now he’s the legitimate favorite.”

Ridden by John Velazquez, 4-5 favorite Verrazano raced comfortably behind early pacesetter Chrisandthecapper before taking charge on the turn.