The $750,000 Wood Memorial (Gr. 1) has produced three of the last five Kentucky Derby winners, so there's every reason to pay close attention when the field of eight leaves the gate for Saturday's 81st edition of the race.

Bellamy Road, a budding 3-year-old colt trained by Nick Zito, was established as the 2-1 morning-line favorite off his 15 ¾ -length victory in an allowance race at Gulfstream Park on March 12.

"There's no question he was very impressive in his last start," Zito said from Churchill Downs, where the two-time Derby winning handler put his bay colt through a final tune-up Tuesday before shipping to New York on Thursday.

"He looked tremendous." How he stacks up against other Derby hopefuls is the big question in New York's final major prep race before the Derby on May 7. The 1 1/8-mile Wood also features San Miguel Stakes (Gr. 3) and Sham Stakes winner Going Wild, Gotham Stakes (Gr. 3) winner Survivalist, and a couple of talented New York-breds, Galloping Grocer and Naughty New Yorker.

Also entered were Pavo, Scrappy T and Byanosejoe.

Bellamy Road, a winner in three of four career starts for Ocala, Fla.-based Kinsman Stable, owned by New York Yankees' boss George Steinbrenner, will be ridden by Javier Castellano. The 3-year-old son of Concerto drew the No. 3 gate in Thursday's post position draw.

Going Wild, trained by four-time Derby winning trainer D. Wayne Lukas, is the 5-2 second choice. The son of Golden Missile will leave from the No. 5 post under Victor Espinoza, who was aboard for the colt's victory in the Sham at Santa Anita. Going Wild, owned by two-time Derby winners Bob and Beverly Lewis, finished second to Declan's Moon in the Santa Catalina Stakes (Gr. 2) in his last start.

Now, it's on to New York, where Going Wild started his career under Lukas' assistant Peter Hutton.

"Wayne told me I wouldn't recognize him because he looks so spectacular," Hutton said. "I thought he was a great looking horse last year."

According to Zito, Bellamy Road needs a strong effort to move on to the Derby. Winning, or course, is not mandatory. Funny Cide, in 2003, and Monarchos, in 2001, finished second in the Wood before winning the Derby, and Fusaichi Pegasus won the 2001 Wood before his Derby victory.

Survivalist, trainer Shug McGaughey's Derby hope, also needs an encouraging performance to move on. The colt already has beaten Pavo, Naughty New Yorker and Galloping Grocer in the one-turn, one-mile Gotham. But this will be the bay colt's first two-turn race.

"It's going to take a big effort," McGaughey said. "You know. I'm not going to say he's going to have to win because you can't tell what's going to happen in a race. So if I'm not totally satisfied, then we won't go. Because when you got to the Derby and you're wrong, you can be really wrong when there's a lot of places down the road where you can pick and choose."

Pavo, who was disqualified from second to fourth in the Gotham, picks up a new rider in Jerry Bailey, who replaces Alan Garcia.

The field, from the rail out: Scrappy T (Rafael Bejarano, 15-1); Byanosejoe (Jose Santos, 12-1); Bellamy Road; Survivalist (Richard Migliore, 5-1); Going Wild; Pavo (Jerry Bailey, 8-1); Galloping Grocer (Mike Luzzi, 6-1); and Naughty New Yorker (Jean-Luc Samyn, 10-1).

The Wood winner collects $450,000, with $150,000 for second and $75,000 for third.

If more than the allowable 20 horses are entered in the Derby, the field will contain the top 20 grades stakes earners.

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