Transect gets the maiden broken on debut Jan. 20 at Turfway Park (Coady Photography)
NYRA Press Office
OZONE PARK, N.Y.— OXO Equine’s Transect, who finished tenth in the Grade 3 Gotham here March 4, could return for the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino on April 8 at Aqueduct. The nine-furlong test for sophomores offers 100-40-30-20-10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the top-five finishers.
Trained by Paulo Lobo, the Gun Runner colt failed to handle a muddy and sealed main track in the Gotham, finishing a distant 10th-of-14 in the one-turn mile that saw the victorious Raise Cain garner 50 Kentucky Derby qualifying points.
“He did not like the muddy track three weeks ago in New York,” Lobo said.
Transect breezed back a bullet half-mile in 48 flat on March 18 over the dirt surface at The Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, Kentucky, and is scheduled to breeze again this week.
Lobo said the added ground in the Wood Memorial would benefit the Gun Runner colt, who is out of the A.P. Indy mare Divine Escapade – a half-sister to Grade 1-winner Mi Sueno.
“The way that he works and gallops out, I think it will help him,” Lobo said.
Transect, a $300,000 purchase from the 2020 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, entered the Gotham from a pair of wins sprinting 6 1/2-furlongs over Tapeta at Turfway Park, including a debut score from off-the-pace on January 20 ahead of a frontrunning effort on February 10.
