Wood Memorial at Aqueduct : Rival Trainer Is Not Awestruck by Capote

Frank LaBoccetta, who won the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct with Air Forbes Won in 1982, is one of the trainers trying to beat the tentative favorite, Capote, in today’s 64th running of this Kentucky Derby prep.

LaBoccetta will be saddling Shawklit Won, a son of Air Forbes Won and the 5-2 second choice on the morning line, compared to Capote’s 2-1. A win by the late-running Shawklit Won would make it a three-generation Wood, since Air Forbes Won’s sire, Bold Forbes, won the Wood in 1976, en route to a victory in the Kentucky Derby.

Capote, last year’s champion 2-year-old colt, did not leave LaBoccetta awestruck after he and Shawklit Won met for the first time in the Gotham Stakes here two weeks ago. Capote, caught in a speed duel with eventual winner Gone West, tired in his first race in five months and finished fourth. Shawklit Won, running a mile for the first time in his third start of the year, came from off the pace and finished second, a length behind Gone West.

Wayne Lukas, the confident trainer of Capote, said that this is the colt who can give him his first win in the Derby. His nine starters have finished no better than third at Churchill Downs.

“Lukas has been saying that he has a super horse,” LaBoccetta said. “The horse has still got to show it. That last race could have taken a lot out of his horse.”

At nearby Belmont Park, where Capote and about 35 other Lukas horses are trained, the trainer reviewed the Gotham and projected what will happen in the Wood.

“You’re never realistic about your own horses and your children,” Lukas said. “But this colt has been eating well and working well since the Gotham, and I think he’s right on schedule for both the Wood and the Derby.

“The fact that he got tired in the Gotham might have partly been my fault. I told (jockey) Pat (Day) to get into the race, and the horse was fresh and wanted to run. Nobody could predict that they’d run the fast fractions (a :44 2/5 half-mile and a 1:08 1/5 three-quarters) that they did.”

Day, who was riding Capote for the first time, will be on heavily favored Demons Begone in today’s Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park, so Angel Cordero will be riding Lukas’ colt in the Wood. Cordero has won this stake four times, including the victories aboard Bold Forbes and Air Forbes Won.

Lukas didn’t outline any specific strategy for the 1 1/8-mile Wood, which also has the speedy Gone West in the nine-horse field. In his three wins last year--including the Norfolk Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita--Capote took the lead almost from the start.

“I think this horse can be easy to rate,” Lukas said. “But nobody knows as much about riding at Aqueduct as Cordero. So I’ll just tell him about the horse, and leave the rest up to him.”

Others in the field are three of the trailers from the Gotham--Gulch, Marine Command and Pleasant Variety--plus K.C.’s Best Turn, Battle Man and Mixed Emotions.

Pleasant Variety and Mixed Emotions probably won’t run if there is an off track, which is a good possibility, since it was raining in New York Friday and more is forecast for today.

Trainer Woody Stephens would welcome more rain, since his Gulch won the Gotham and one other stake in the mud. Lukas would prefer a fast track for Capote but won’t scratch the colt, since his light racing schedule for the horse doesn’t leave any room for postponements between now and the Derby two weeks from today.

Earlier this week, Lukas elaborated on why he got such a late start with Capote. He had said earlier that the colt’s schedule wasn’t prompted by a virus that left Capote sick for about 10 days in December.

“There’s a $5-million bonus connected with the Triple Crown this year, and you’ve got to run in all three races (the Derby, Preakness and Belmont) to be eligible,” Lukas said. “In August (at Saratoga), there’s the Travers, which is a $1-million race for the first time. Then in the fall, you’ve got the Breeders’ Cup (which includes a $3-million race).

“That’s a lot of money at the end of the rainbow. I’ve got this horse on a schedule that’s designed to make him look good in May and have something left for the rest of the haul, rather than have him run his best races in March.”

In the 1970s, Personality, Foolish Pleasure, Bold Forbes and Seattle Slew won the Wood and then won a total of seven Triple Crown races.

Since 1980, though, the race has been more of an albatross than an asset. The last Wood winner to excel in the Triple Crown was Pleasant Colony, who won the Derby and the Preakness six years ago.

Horse Racing Notes

Masterful Advocate, who’ll be flown to Louisville Monday to run in the Kentucky Derby, worked six furlongs Friday at Santa Anita in 1:12 4/5. . . . On a sloppy track at Churchill Downs, Temperate Sil, another Derby candidate, was timed in 1:16. Laser Show, a filly, had the fastest time of the morning at that distance in Louisville, 1:14 1/5. . . . Pat Valenzuela, who’s been absent at Santa Anita the last couple of weeks, will resume riding when Hollywood Park opens its season Wednesday. “Pat got whatever personal problems he had out of the way,” said Tom Ward, a Santa Anita steward. “He looks like he’s in 1,000% shape.” . . . Six horses--Louis Le Grand, Long Mick, Schiller, Rivlia, Wylfa and Rosedale--have been entered in Sunday’s $400,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita. Rivlia and Rosedale, both owned by Nelson Bunker Hunt, will be coupled in the betting. . . . Jose Santos is back riding Gulch in the Wood, after Jacinto Vasquez rode him to a third-place finish in the Gotham. Santos was busy that day, riding Cryptoclearance to victory in the Florida Derby.