Wood Memorial hopefuls Cadeyrn, Matt King Coal post moves

Edited Press Release

Impressive maiden winner Cadeyrn will wade into the deep waters of the Triple Crown trail, taking on winners for the first time in the $1 million Wood Memorial (G1) at Aqueduct on April 9, according to trainer Jeremiah Englehart.

Cadeyrn began his career last fall at Aqueduct, picking up a second-place finish and a pair of thirds, before breaking through in his fourth career attempt on February 20.

Facing eight rivals in a maiden special weight, the three-year-old Malibu Moon colt graduated in front-running fashion, sporting blinkers for the first time, and drawing off to an 11-length score under a brisk hand ride from Manny Franco.

"He came out of that last race really well," Englehart said of his Wood Memorial contender. "I think the blinkers made the biggest difference. In the morning, he's one that has shown that he's a really nice horse, but in the afternoons he can play around a lot.

“It seems like every week, he's been getting better and better as far as his breezes go. We're looking forward to giving it a shot."

The Kentucky-bred dark bay worked a half-mile in :48 over Belmont Park's fast training track Friday morning for his second breeze since breaking his maiden. Cadeyrn had gotten back onto the work tab last week with a relaxed half-mile move, covering the distance in :50.80.

"For his first breeze back, we just let him have something nice and easy," Englehart reported. "And (this week) I wanted to see him start getting a little more aggressive now for the next few weeks going into the race.

“I brought Manny along – I don't know if he'll be available to ride him in the race – but he knows the horse and he knew what I kind of work I wanted and he worked with him very well."

Another working out for the Wood Memorial over the weekend in New York was Matt King Coal, who earned his second consecutive victory from four career starts on March 6 at Aqueduct in an allowance/optional claimer against a talent-laden field.

Trainer Linda Rice was optimistic with how Matt King Coal continues to develop heading into his first graded stakes attempt after the son of Cool Coal Man breezed six furlongs in 1:13 over the fast Belmont Park training track Saturday morning.

"He had a very nice breeze yesterday," Rice said. "He'll get one more before the Wood and we're pretty excited about the way he's come out of the allowance race and he better be on his best for the Wood."

Matt King Coal has shown a penchant for running on the lead in three out of his four starts, and Rice has no set plans to alter his running style. She’ll leave the final decision heading into the race to regular rider Jose Ortiz.

"I would say Plan A is to continue to utilize his speed," Rice continued. "You never know at some point if there's going to be enough speed in a race to consider taking him back, but Jose has ridden him and won a lot of races for me and I'm going to have to leave that up to him."

Nominations for the Wood Memorial, which is worth 100-40-20-10 points to the respective top four finishers as part of the Kentucky Derby Championship Series of points races, close on March 26.