Uncle Mo targeted toward Wood Memorial for final prep

After an easy victory in his 3-year-old debut last week at the Timely Writer Stakes at Gulfstream Park, it’s fairly evident that Uncle Mo is the early horse to beat for the Kentucky Derby.

Making his first start since sewing up the 2-year-old divisional title with a one-sided victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Uncle Mo broke a step slow from his inside post and bumped briefly with Gallant Dreams before recovering quickly to control the pace while kept off the rail by jockey John Velazquez. Uncle Mo set slow fractions of 25.53 seconds, 49.58 and 1:13.69 while stalked by Rattlesnake Bridge from the outset.

Once Uncle Mo settled into the stretch the Timely Writer became no contest with Uncle Mo steadily pulling away from his lone challenger, completing his final quarter-mile in a sparkling 22.87 before galloping out strongly into the clubhouse turn to win by 3 ¾ lengths.

“He was the Derby favorite going in and he’s the Derby favorite coming out,” trainer Todd Pletcher said.

Indeed, Uncle Mo was the favorite in Pool 2 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager at the close of betting, ending at 3-1 when betting close. The mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, closed as the 7-2 second choice, followed by Dialed In (11-1), Soldat (13-1), To Honor and Serve (14-1), and Jaycito (16-1).

It appears Uncle Mo will attempt to go 5-for-5 in his career at the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 9 as his final Kentucky Derby prep. There has been some consideration of the Florida Derby on April 3.

Asked to put percentages of the chances of running in the Wood versus the Florida Derby, Pletcher said “I would say 80-20, maybe 90-10.”

The Florida Derby is a slight possibility, Pletcher said, because “the fact is he’s here in Florida, he ran well at Gulfstream on Saturday, and if he came back in three weeks for the Florida Derby, he’d then have five weeks to the Kentucky Derby.”

“But the Wood has been the plan all along, and, thus far, the plan has gone accordingly,” Pletcher added. “I don’t know that we want to mess with that.”

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