Some of the greatest horses have won Aqueduct's biggest race for three year olds. The 2012 edition takes place this Saturday. Lets take a look at a few of the winners.
1968- Dancer's Image (Native Dancer): Even though he crossed the wire first in the KY Derby, he was disqualified for having bute which at the time was illegal. That handed the title to the favorite going into the race Foward Pass. This is the only time that a Derby winner has been disqualifed from the race. He would finish third in the Preakness showing that his Derby "win" was for real, but he once again was dq'ed this time for interference. Sadly, his ankles taken too much of a beating and was retired shortly afterwards. He stood in Maryland, Ireland, France and Japan. Peter Fuller his owner would rebound 20 years later with Hall of Famer Mom's Command.
1973- Angle Light (Quadrangle): When you watch the movie Secretariat, you see that Sham's connections are celebrating beating the Triple Crown winner in his final race before the Derby. There is one tiny problem, Big Red's stablemate beat Sham as well. He would go onto finish 10th in the Derby.
1975- Foolish Pleasure (What a Pleasure): He finished in the top three in the Derby (win), Preakness (2nd) and Belmont (2nd). However, he is more known for his match race against Ruffian (who was ridden that day by their regular jockey Jacinto Vasquez) that of course ended in tragedy with the undeafted filly being pulled up and subquently euthanized. As a four year old, he won both the Suburban and the Donn. His grandddaughter I'll Get Along is the dam to Smarty Jones.
1992- Devil His Due (Devil's Bag): He could only manage to finish 12th in the Derby. His career afterwards however was solid with wins in the Brooklyn, Suburban, and Pimlico Special among others. As a sire, he has Dubai World Cup winner Roses in May, and one of my personal favorites Withers winner Spite the Devil.
2000- Fusaichi Pegasus (Mr. Prospector):
The last horse to win both the Wood and the KY Derby. He would finish second in the Preakness, but come back to win the Jerome. It wasn't enough though to take 3yo honors (Tiznow the BCC winner was 3yo Champ Male and HOY). The $4 million yearling has had success at stud with the likes of Champ Pegasus, Classic Reunion (in Hong Kong, and unsuccessful in Australia as Winning Boy), Entergentic Boy (in Hong Kong), and Roman Ruler (who of course is the sire of last year's Belmont winner Ruler On Ice).
2008- Tale of Ekati (Tale of the Cat):
This was a make or break race for the 2yo Champion War Pass. He had already been upset in the Tampa Bay Derby by the Barclay Tagg trainee Big Truck. Here once again, Tagg would have his number with Tale of Ekati. Named for a diamond mine in his owner's native Canada, he finished 4th in the Kentucky Derby that year. He would go on to win both the Jerome and Cigar Mile (via a DQ) later on in the year.
(Note from Rachel: On a personal level, the 2008 Wood will go down as the most important races that I've seen. I was sitting in a hospital waiting room with my parents where my dad had just gotten the dianosis of colon cancer. It was the second to last horse race we would see together as he would pass away only hours before the Wood was run the next year)
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