Baffert loaded with Derby Day starters
 

Never mind Derby, though Rodriguez has looked terrific since arriving, Baffert has some serious firepower set for Saturday with Goal Oriented perhaps the most intriguing. His MDN the day after Santa Anita Derby was pretty stunning and he's only going to better going longer. Nysos return is highly anticipated. Thought Madaket Road work really well here the other day..

I’ve got a question about Rodriguez and the Wood. Maybe someone who understands DRF more can explain.

DRF lists the Wood as favoring closers with the C designation. My recollection of that race was that Rodriguez got a largely uncontested lead. Watching it again, Captain Cook pressed him a bit but the fractions don’t seem crazy fast. The timeform pace figures were fast for the first 1/4 and moderately fast for the remaining fractions.

That day, Aqueduct had 6/13 races where the winner went wire to wire. Another 5 of the winners were close to the pace. I don’t know if there was any track bias but it certainly seems like Rodriguez wasn’t running against a bias of any sort.

Really questioning that C designation. And maybe this question is more about Grande than Rodriguez. I don’t like the pace scenario for Rodriguez in the Derby but seems like Grande’s Wood performance might have been a pretty good one.

That rating system, IMO, is a disgrace, and often misleading, as you are clearly pointing out here. Here's what I wrote for the day in Track Trends..."While the rail was good, though no discernable advantage, and speed did well in some races, overall the track played fairly with a mix of successful running styles."

They may claim that it's more about the flow of that specific race. However, that's completely untrue about that race. I would ignore that rating.

Thanks Andy. Glad to get some confirmation of my thoughts on that.

Rodriguez is a horse you cant leave off the underside of a ticket but probably won't win.