Totally agree about Early Voting. It seems like in the past few years, the horses that drop out of contention in the last month prior to the Derby have speed. Would love to seem him in the Pat Day Mile as well, but if Chad skips the Derby, he is likely running in the Preakness, hoping for a Cloud Computing type of repeat isn't he?
Not a huge fan of Morello at 10f, but he had no shot in the Wood after the poor break.
Charge It was all over the place in the stretch during the Florida Derby - was it that he was tired, green or a combination of both?
I always find it an interesting exercise to look at the time of the Derby preps and see where they fall historically. I understand raw times have little utility, but it is interesting to me that Mo Donegal ran the eighth fastest Wood on record at 9f. For what it is worth, there were at least 50 faster editions each of the Arkansas Derby, Bluegrass and Florida Derby run compared to the 2022 final times. The Santa Anita Derby was the 27th fastest historically. The Louisiana Derby was the fastest, but there were only two other times it was run at 9.5f. Hot Rod Charlie was almost a second and a half faster than Wells Bayou and Epicenter was over a half second faster than Hot Rod Charlie (track record time in this rarely run distance). Here are the Wood Memorial winners and final times at 9f.
Year-Winner-Time
2001-Congaree-1:47.80
2000-Fusaichi Pegasus-1:47.80
1999-Adonis-1:47.60
2005-Bellamy Road-1:47.16
1988-Private Terms-1:47.20
1998-Coronado's Quest-1:47.40
1976-Bold Forbes-1:47.40
2022-Mo Donegal-1:47.96
2003-Empire Maker-1:48.60
2002-Buddha-1:48.60
1985-Eternal Prince-1:48.80
1975-Foolish Pleasure-1:48.80
1957-Bold Ruler-1:48.80
1997-Captain Bodgit-1:48.20
1993-Storm Tower-1:48.40
1991-Cahill Road-1:48.40
2018-Vino Rosso-1:49.79
2011-Toby's Corner-1:49.93
2010-Eskendereya-1:49.97
2004-Tapit-1:49.60
1996-Unbridled's Song-1:49.80
1994-Irgun-1:49.00
1987-Gulch-1:49.00
1981-Pleasant Colony-1:49.60
1978-Believe It-1:49.80
1977-Seattle Slew-1:49.60
1974-2-Rube The Great-1:49.60
1973-Angle Light-1:49.80
1972-Upper Case-1:49.00
1971-Good Behaving-1:49.80
1969-Dike-1:49.60
1968-Dancer's Image-1:49.00
1967-Damascus-1:49.60
1966-Amberoid-1:49.60
1959-Manassa Mauler-1:49.60
1995-Talkin Man-1:49.20
1992-Devil His Due-1:49.20
1979-Instrument Landing-1:49.20
1963-No Robbery-1:49.20
1962-Admiral's Voyage-1:49.20
2014-Wicked Strong-1:49.31
1970-Personality-1:49.40
2007-Nobiz Like Shobiz-1:49.46
2009-I Want Revenge-1:49.49
2017-Irish War Cry-1:50.91
2012-Gemologist-1:50.96
1989-Easy Goer-1:50.60
1986-Broad Brush-1:50.60
1980-Plugged Nickle-1:50.80
1955-Nashua-1:50.60
1954-Correlation-1:50.00
1953-Native Dancer-1:50.60
1965-Flag Raiser-1:50.20
1964-Quadrangle-1:50.20
1961-Globemaster-1:50.20
1960-Francis S.-1:50.20
1958-Jewel's Reward-1:50.20
1956-Head Man-1:50.20
2013-Verrazano-1:50.27
2015-Frosted-1:50.31
1990-Thirty Six Red-1:50.40
1983-Bounding Basque-1:51.00
1982-1-Air Forbes Won-1:51.00
2019-Tacitus-1:51.23
1984-Leroy S.-1:51.40
1983-2-Slew o' Gold-1:51.40
1974-1-Flip Sal-1:51.40
2006-Bob and John-1:51.54
2016-Outwork-1:52.92
2008-Tale of Ekati-1:52.35
1952-Master Fiddle-1:52.40
2021-Bourbonic-1:54.49
