St. Elias Stable's 'TDN Rising Star' Captain Cook (Practical Joke) breezed a half-mile in :49 (14/79) Wednesday over the Belmont Park dirt training track as he prepares for the GII Wood Memorial S. at Aqueduct Apr. 5.
Trained by Rick Dutrow, Jr., the bay was completing his sixth workout since capturing the nine-furlong Listed Withers Feb. 1.
“It was mostly maintenance,” said Blake Dutrow, Dutrow Jr.'s nephew and Belmont-based assistant. “He's ready so we are just trying to keep him happy and stay out of his way, because we feel like if the Wood were tomorrow, he'd be ready for it, if it's next week, he's ready. As long as he stays the way he is, we will feel like he has a good shot.”
Captain Cook was purchased for $410,000 at the 2024 Keeneland November Horses of Racing Age sale as part of the dispersal of the estate of the late John Hendrickson after his debut sixth-place finish at Churchill Downs Oct. 27.
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