Wood Memorial

The Wood Memorial Stakes was first run in 1925. It was named to honor Eugene D. Wood, a New York State politician and horse racing enthusiast who had been a founder and past president of the old Jamaica Racetrack where the race was run until 1960.

From 1925 to 1939 it was run over a distance of one mile and seventy yards, then at 1 1/16 miles from 1940 to 1951 after which it was changed to its present 1 1/8 miles.

Run in April of each year, the Wood Memorial is a major prep race with eleven past winners having gone on to capture victory in the Kentucky Derby, four of whom captured the Triple Crown. The most famous non-winner in the Wood Memorial was the immortal Secretariat who finished third in 1973.