Captain Bodgit Rallies to Win the Wood Memorial

Now the real problems begin for Barry Irwin and the Team Valor syndicate.

Churchill Downs allocates 18 seats per horse for owners with a starter in the Kentucky Derby, and Team Valor’s Captain Bodgit is owned by what seems like a cast of thousands.

Mr. DeMille, they’re ready for their close-up. With 18 of his 32 owners on hand, Captain Bodgit splashed his way to a two-length win in the $500,000 Wood Memorial on a gray, rainy afternoon Saturday before a sparse crowd of 11,151 at Aqueduct, setting up the Irwin-led Team Valor group for an invasion of Louisville and the Derby on May 3.

Either Captain Bodgit or Pulpit, who rebounded in Saturday’s Blue Grass after The Captain had beaten him in the Florida Derby, will be favored in Kentucky. Their respective camps should be advised to talk their way out of that role; a favorite hasn’t won the Derby since Spectacular Bid in 1979.

“It’s a nice thing if we have a favorite,” said Gary Capuano, obviously not a superstitious trainer. “I know the favorite hasn’t won there in a long time. It would be good to be the one to break that streak.”

The Aqueduct track was listed as sloppy, but underneath there was a firm bottom, something jockey Alex Solis related to Irwin after he had ridden a horse trained by Dale Capuano, the brother of Captain Bodgit’s trainer, in a race an hour before the Wood.

Gary Capuano knew Captain Bodgit could run on an off track--he had won over a wet-fast track at Delaware Park last year--but, concerned about his colt’s safety, he considered scratching to run in a race next Saturday at Pimlico.

“That was something we really didn’t want to do,” Irwin said.

“If we get mud at Pimlico and scratch there too, then we’re looking at a scenario where all our horse does is train for seven weeks before the Derby.”

On the rail and running up front were the ways horses were winning Saturday at Aqueduct, but Captain Bodgit did it his way, closing from the outside and making up about eight lengths. His time for the Wood was an impressive 1:48 1/5, third fastest for this race since it was first run at the 1 1/8-mile distance in 1952. The only faster Woods since then, both coming on fast tracks, were Private Terms’ 1:47 1/5 in 1988 and Bold Forbes’ 1:47 2/5 in 1976.

Captain Bodgit, winning for the seventh time in 10 starts and the third time at 1 1/8 miles, earned $300,000, hiking his purse total to $769,749. As the favorite, he paid $5.50 for $2. Accelerator, probably also Derby-bound, made a late run to finish second, one length ahead of Smokin Mel, the pace-setter who ran fractions of :23 3/5, 47:2/5, 1:11 2/5 and 1:35 4/5. Ordway, the second choice at 5-2, finished fourth, followed by Activist, Jack At The Bank, Wild Tempest, Twin Spires, Droopy Stone and Hoxie.

The California-based Solis has been riding Captain Bodgit for three races, or since Team Valor bought the colt from Phyllis Susini for $500,000 in January. Susini had once put a $750,000 price tag on her horse, so by way of compromise she received an additional $50,000 from Team Valor after Captain Bodgit won the Florida Derby.

The first time he got off Captain Bodgit, after a third-place finish in the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park in February, Solis looked at the colt’s left foreleg and tried to commiserate with Capuano.

“It looks like he got hurt,” Solis said.

“Nah,” Capuano said. “He’s always had that.”

You can try to be semantically delicate with Captain Bodgit’s left front all you want, but the candid Irwin takes the high road.

“It’s like the old story that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck,” he said. “This is a bowed tendon. When you look at it, it sticks out on both sides. But fortunately we’ve got a trainer who’s had this horse his whole career, and he knows how to deal with it.”

In the Wood, Captain Bodgit found a spot on the rail, in sixth place, during the run down the backstretch. On the turn for home, Solis swung him to the outside, near the center of the track. They were still behind four horses at the top of the stretch, but Captain Bodgit passed them all, getting only two left-handed reminders from Solis’ whip. He made the lead about 40 yards before the wire.

“It was such an easy race,” Solis said. “I had perfect position throughout. At the five-sixteenths pole, I asked him and he threw me into the backseat. I was a little concerned about the rain in the morning, but after the first race I knew the track was going to be perfect for him. He just keeps getting better and better. He surprised me with how much better he’s getting. I feel confident [about the Derby] with him. He’s a sweetheart of a horse to ride.”

Meantime, Barry Irwin will be on the phone on behalf of his partners, calling in old markers in the quest for a good-sized block of Derby tickets.