The WOOD MEMORIAL, an important stepping stone to the spring classics for three-year-olds, was inaugarated in 1925 in memory of Eugene D. Wood, one of the founders of the old Jamaica Racetrack and a former president there. Wood, in addition to being a Jamaica founder, was a bon vivant and a politician familiar to the legislative halls of Albany. This race was originally called the Wood Stakes, but, after several runnings, it was changed to the Wood Memorial. It is New York's premier prep-race for the Kentucky Derby. The WOOD MEMORIAL was run at Jamaica prior to l960. Run at one mile and seventy yards from l925 to l939; at one mile and a sixteenth from l940 to l95l. Run in two divisions in l944, l945, l947, l974, and 1983. In 1956, Golf Ace was disqualified from first and placed second. In 1962, Admiral's Voyage finished in a dead heat with Sunrise County, who was disqualified and placed second.