Easy Goer - 1989 Wood Memorial Stakes

Easy Goer won the $568,000 Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct yesterday with a performance that may not have looked as impressive as his other triumphs but was actually at least as strong.

The 3-year-old son of Alydar and Relaxing, making his final start before the Kentucky Derby on May 6, beat Rock Point by three lengths and was timed in 1:50 3/5 for the mile and an eighth, more than three seconds slower than the track record. The time and the margin may have left some fans a bit disappointed as they compared it with his previous effort, when he won the Gotham Stakes on April 8 by 13 lengths and set a track record of 1:32 3/5 for a mile.

But the Aqueduct track was as unusually slow today as it was unusually fast for the Gotham, and Easy Goer's seemingly ordinary time translates to just as good an effort. More important, Easy Goer was winning beyond a mile and around two turns for the first time in his career, and he did so with no loss of effectiveness.

His final furlong of 0:12 1/5 over the dull strip was extremely impressive, and the race confirmed his status as the Derby favorite while suggesting he will have no trouble with its mile-and-a-quarter distance.

Easy Goer, bred and owned by Ogden Phipps and trained by Shug McGaughey, took the lead at the top of the stretch and drew clear under Pat Day to win by three lengths. Rock Point fought off Triple Buck to be second by a head, and Militron was 11 1/2 lengths back in fourth. Diamond Donnie, the early leader, faded to fifth and A. M. Swinger trailed.

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/23/spo...