'Tale' Tall With Win at Wood

OZONE PARK, N.Y., April 5 -- Trainers Nick Zito and Barclay Tagg brought horses into the Grade I $750,000 Wood Memorial on Saturday off inscrutable defeats. Zito, with his previously undefeated 2007 juvenile champion War Pass, off a massive meltdown in the Tampa Bay Derby. Tagg, with his most promising 3-year-old, Tale of Ekati, off a sluggish, disinterested sixth-place finish in the Louisiana Derby.

At stake: first prize, reclaimed reputations and a place in the starting gate next month in the Kentucky Derby.

Neither trainer came away disappointed as War Pass returned to his tigerish, front-running form and Tale of Ekati ran him down in the final strides to win by a half-length in the 1 1/8 -mile prep race at Aqueduct.

The final time, 1 minute 52.35 seconds, proved more than a second slower than older horses ran in the prior race, but Tagg dismissed any inference of larger meaning.

"Is that slow? What do they say? Time's only important when you're in prison," he said. "I still felt good about this horse [after the Louisiana Derby]. I didn't see any reason to take him off the Derby trail. Funny Cide [his 2003 Kentucky Derby winner] was beaten in all three of his preps."

Often, Zito takes defeat hard when convinced his horse should have won, but the rebound by War Pass after a 23 1/4 -length drubbing three weeks ago by another Tagg runner, Big Truck, appeared to renew his confidence.

War Pass always gets away from the gate fast, and he had hesitated at the start in Tampa Bay and been squeezed between horses soon after. In the Wood, he got out fast, rocketed through a contested first quarter-mile in 22.46 seconds and held the lead gamely until the very end.

"It's the first time I've finished second and felt it was like a win," Zito said in the paddock after the race. "It's sad you don't win. It would have been wonderful to win this Wood, but I'm happy with how he ran. He wasn't up the track."

While the final time of the race appeared slow, opening to question the quality of the field, Tale of Ekati and War Pass clearly were superior to the seven other runners entered.

At the start, jockey Cornelio Velasquez made sure War Pass, the 4-5 favorite, went right to the front. Inner Light, a long shot who appeared to have been entered to ensure a fast pace for closer Court Vision, the eventual third-place finisher, hounded him for a half-mile.

When the field reached the far turn, War Pass shook off Inner Light and headed home, in front by two lengths. Tale of Ekati, who stalked the leaders from third place, moved to attack as they headed for the stretch. Jockey Edgar Prado whipped his mount three times and ducked down to the inside as War Pass drifted out to the center of the track.

Tale of Ekati had enough left to overhaul War Pass at the end.