Nicholas Zito sends Casual Trick to the Wood Memorial
Trainer Nicholas Zito has been saddling horses for a long time, and has the experience to land the big races and many would trust him to do it, but the 2012’s road to Kentucky Derby has been a little bumpy, and Nicholas Zito will be the first one to admit
that.
With the Wood Memorial right around the corner, a race that Zito has won 5 time in 2005 with Bellamy Road, the veteran trainer will be looking to wrap up the most crucial prep race for the Kentucky Derby, which has traditionally produced winners to go on
to bag the Derby, but at times the second and the third best have actually made the headlines on the first week of May.
Zito won his first Wood Memorial way back in 1990 with his trusty runner, Thirty Six Red, and since then the Hall of Fame trainer has opened the flood gates and went on to saddle 25 more in the Run for the Roses, and he succeeded twice, but the Churchill
Downs luck for Zito ran out in 1994 when Go For Gin won the Kentucky Derby for his trainer.
This time around though Zito has a horse who hasn’t been off the radar, but still lacking a real run to be considered as the fiercest among other favourites. Casual Trick was second in the Gulfstream Park Derby on 1 January, 2012, second to winner, Reveron.
“Normally, whether it was [2010 and 2011 Florida Derby winners] Ice Box or Dialed In, we’ve done a normal course in all the years,” Zito said. “With Bellamy Road, Birdstone, Sun King, all those wonderful horses, I can’t name them all, we’ve basically had
some kind of rhythm.This one,” he added, “has been an up and down deal.”
Casual Trick has been entered in the Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial at about 1 1/8 miles at Aqueduct. His last two starts weren’t up to the mark, but there was a reason for it.
The Kentucky bred son of Bernardini flipped his palate in his last two races, and had a breathing problem, and Zito hopes that he will recover from it and do well in the Wood Memorial.
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