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Wood Memorial, Carter top Aqueduct's Spring Showcase meet

by Heather Pettinger

The Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial and Grade 1, $400,000 Carter Handicap will highlight the Spring Showcase meet on Saturday, April 8 at Aqueduct Racetrack.

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's stakes schedule will commence with the third annual New York Claiming Championship Day on April 1, featuring 10 lucrative starter allowance races with purses worth nearly $700,000. 

The 93rd running of the 1 1/8-mile Wood Memorial is one of five stakes on Saturday, April 8. Worth 100-40-20-10 qualifying points to the 2017 "Run for the Roses," New York's traditional prep for the Kentucky Derby will be joined by its co-feature, the seven-furlong Carter, the first Grade 1 contest on the NYRA racing calendar.

Also on tap for Wood Memorial Day are the spring meet's official Kentucky Oaks qualifier, the Grade 2, $300,000 Gazelle for sophomore fillies at 1 1/8 miles, as well as pair of Grade 3's with 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 ¼ miles.

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 on Sunday, April 9.

Rounding out the graded stakes for the 2017 Spring Showcase 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 on Sunday, April 2, and the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff Handicap at seven furlongs on 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, Sunday, April 23, before live racing moves to Belmont Park on Friday, April 28.