The Wood Memorial Stakes is an American flat Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held annually in April at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, Queens, New York.
[2] The Wood Memorial is one of the major prep races on the Road to the Kentucky Derby.
Between 1930 and 2000, eleven winners of the Wood Memorial went on to win the Kentucky Derby (Gallant Fox, Twenty Grand, Johnstown, Count Fleet, Hoop Jr., Assault, Foolish Pleasure, Bold Forbes, Seattle Slew, Pleasant Colony and Fusaichi Pegasus).
The winner of the Wood Memorial has not won the Kentucky Derby since 2000, in part because several became injured in the weeks between the two races.
In 2005, Bellamy Road set a new stakes record of 1:47.16 at the 1+1⁄8 mile distance in winning by 17+1⁄2 lengths for his owner, George Steinbrenner.