Talkin Man Favored In Wood Memorial

Talkin Man is the horse everybody’s talkin’ about at the Wood Memorial.

“He was very impressive in his last race,” Hall of Fame trainer H. Allen Jerkens said. “That day, he looked like a Kentucky Derby horse.”

Talkin Man, the Canadian 2-year-old champion trained by Roger Attfield, was one of eight 3-year-olds entered Thursday for the $500,000 Wood on Saturday at Aqueduct.

In his last outing March 25, Talkin Man won the Gotham at Aqueduct by 7 lengths, and that earned him the favorite’s role at 4-5 for the Wood, the last big Eastern prep for the Kentucky Derby on May 6.

“I felt he was one or two works short of running his best race, but with the race he ran, I guess I was wrong,” Attfield said from Keeneland, where he has other horses stabled. “He couldn’t have been better, could he?”

The field, in post position order with jockeys ands odds, is: El Alpino, Jose Santos, 30-1; Talkin Man, Shane Sellers, 4-5; Knockadoon, Robbie Davis, 6-1; Moonlight Dancer, Larry Melancon, 6-1; Key Guy, Herb McCauley, 4-1; Is Sveikatas, Jorge Chavez, 20-1; Candy Cone, Noel Wynter, 12-1, and Kresa, Joe Bravo, 10-1. All starters will carry 123 pounds.

Key Guy, trained by Mark Hennig, has won two of three starts this year, including the Rushaway at Turfway Park on March 11 in his only stakes start. Moonlight Dancer won the Lecomte at the Fair Grounds on Feb. 4 and was third in the Louisiana Derby in his last outing March 19, giving him a win, two seconds and a third in four starts this year.