[2] His dam, Moyne Abbey was a half sister to the Grade III winner Gulch Approval and a descendant of the influential broodmare Lisette, making her a distant relative of Snow Chief, Al Bahathri and Haafhd.

[6] Wicked Strong was moved up in class for his final start of the year, the Grade II Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct on November 30 in which Rajiv Maragh took over from Prado.

He started awkwardly but finished well to take third, beaten a nose and half a length by Honor Code and Cairo Prince despite tossing his head and shying away from his rider's stick in the straight.

In January, he started the 4.3/1 third favorite for the Grade II Holy Bull Stakes but was never in contention and was eased down in the closing stages by his rider Javier Castellano to finish ninth of the eleven runners behind Cairo Prince.

In April, Wicked Strong was moved north for the Grade I Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct, a major trial race for the Kentucky Derby.

He was in tenth place with a quarter mile left to run but made steady progress to finish fourth behind California Chrome, Commanding Curve and Danza.

He made steady progress on the wide outside in the closing stages but never looked likely to win, eventually dead-heating with California Chrome for fourth, two lengths behind the winner Tonalist.

Equipped with blinkers for the first time he raced much closer to the lead than usual, went to the front approaching the final turn and won by two and a quarter lengths from Tonalist.

[12] After becoming the first trainer since Nick Zito to send out a 1–2 in the race, Jerkens commented "I just feel bad for Wicked Strong; that's the only thing, he ran so hard.

Maragh suffered a broken arm in the fall, but the horse appeared to come out of the race without injury; Moreno finished fourth, but was disqualified due to interference and placed last.