Quality Road - 2010 Woodward Stakes (G1)

Quality Road returned to the winner's circle Saturday afternoon at Saratoga Race Course with an emphatic 4 ¾-length victory over Mythical Power in the 57th running of the $750,000 Woodward, his third Grade 1 win of the year.

Rebounding from his narrow loss to Blame at Saratoga four weeks ago, the 4-year-old Elusive Quality colt broke sharply and was quickly maneuvered to the outside of longshot Arcodoro, who set opening fractions of 24.06 and 47.76. With three furlongs to go, jockey John Velazquez sent Quality Road up into the lead, and he was never threatened as he rolled through the stretch under mild encouragement to hit the wire in 1:50.00 for the 1 1/8 miles.

"He was much, much better than last time," said Velazquez of Quality Road, who this year won the Grade 3 Hal's Hope, the Grade 1 Donn Handicap and the Grade 1 Met Mile before being stunned by Blame at the wire in the Grade 1 Whitney. "In the Whitney, I was struggling to get him going. Today, he was much more willing, and much more on the bridle."

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• quality
• road
• nyra
• horse
• racing
• woodward
• john
• velazquez
• todd
• pletcher
• saratoga

[Temple95]

Another Gr1 win for this great horse !! That a boy, stay nice and clean in front of the pack.

[love4horses1]

Watch out Classic field, here he comes! He's outstanding, basically cruising! I think he can get that 1 1/4m.

[GBeret83]

Did Quality Road look great today? Sure. But really, who did he have running at him. He should have been expected to destroy this field. Quality Road's biggest problem is that he's a bit of a core specialist. He's only a beast at 8 or 9 furlongs. He's "iffy" at best at 10 furlongs. I wouldn't hang my hat on betting he'll win the Classic. Too many legitimate late closers that can handle 10 furlongs easily. He'd be much better off sent to the Breeders Cup Dirt Mile. Pletcher's too vain for that.

[npspec34]

1:50 doesn't get the blood boiling.