OZONE PARK, N.Y. - On a weekend of mixed results with his 3-year-olds, trainer Bob Baffert may have found his top Kentucky Derby candidate in Rodriguez, the dominant front-running winner of Saturday’s Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. Baffert shipped Rodriguez cross-country hoping to find a quieter environment for the 3-year-old who got a bit wound up prior to last month’s San Felipe at Santa Anita, where he finished 11 1/4 lengths behind Journalism. On Saturday, Rodriguez was all business from his pre-race behavior to the race, in which he was sent to the front by jockey Mike Smith and took some pressure from favored Captain Cook, before drawing way to win by 3 1/2 lengths over Grande. Baffert said reports from his handlers in New York indicated Rodriguez came out of the Wood in good order. He was scheduled to ship back to California on Tuesday. “Now he’s got a great foundation, now he’s ready for the Kentucky Derby,” said Baffert, a six-time Kentucky Derby winner. “The time was pretty impressive. He did it the right way.” :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Rodriguez, a son of 2020 Kentucky Derby winner Authentic, ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.15 and earned a 101 Beyer Speed Figure. Over the last 20 runnings of the Wood, only Bellamy Road (1:47.16) and Mo Donegal (1:47.96) have run faster Wood Memorials. For Baffert, it was his third victory in this race, having taken it in 2001 with Congaree and 2006 with Bob and John. Baffert credited jockey Flavien Prat, who rode Rodriguez in the San Felipe, with providing some important feedback regarding the horse. “He gave me some great feedback on what I needed to work on and we worked on it,” Baffert said, without elaborating. “We went into halftime and made some corrections.” One of the things Baffert did was remove the blinkers from Rodriguez, equipment he wore in his first four starts. On Saturday, Smith said he felt that was a big help. It was Smith’s first time aboard Rodriguez. “He probably needs to see, if he doesn’t see [what’s] behind him he tends to tighten up a bit, that’s what it felt like to me,” Smith said after the race. “I would let him turn his head all the way around if he wanted to look, then you could feel him calm down after that.” Baffert confirmed that Smith would retain the mount for the Kentucky Derby. It will be Smith’s record-extending 29th Derby mount, first since 2022. Smith won the Derby in 2005 aboard Giacomo and in 2018 aboard the Baffert-trained Justify, who would go on to win the Triple Crown. Baffert is likely to go on to the Kentucky Derby with Citizen Bull, fourth in the Santa Anita Derby, and Madaket Road, fourth in the Florida Derby on March 30. According to Tom Ryan, of SF Racing, one of the owners of Rodriguez, the horse is named for the musician Sixto Rodriguez, who became a cultural hero in South Africa and was the subject of the Academy Award-winning film "Searching for Sugar Man." Grande, the runner-up in the Wood, came out of his effort in good order and will be pointed to the Kentucky Derby, trainer Todd Pletcher said. After racing close to the pace in winning his first two races, Grande was seventh early on Saturday and had a wide trip under Dylan Davis. He finished 1 3/4 lengths clear of third-place finisher Passion Rules. “He had a pretty rough trip around the first turn, he got stuck out wide and kind of had to go off heels which put him even wider,” Pletcher said. “You could see once he straightened up down the backside he put in a long, sustained run. I’d say he ran a lot farther than the winner, for sure.” Grande, a son of Curlin owned by Mike Repole, will go into the Kentucky Derby with only three career starts. “One good thing about yesterday is he got an education and took some dirt and got some experience that way,” Pletcher said. “Ideally, he’d have another race or two under his belt. In today’s world, it’s a little different, it doesn’t seem like you have to have the experience that you once appeared to need.” Though Davis rode Grande on Saturday, Pletcher was not ready to name a rider for Grande. John Velazquez rode him to victory in his first two starts. Velazquez was in Dubai on Saturday. Irad Oritz Jr. rides River Thames for Pletcher in Tuesday’s Blue Grass. Pletcher was also undecided where Grande would do his major preparation. Derby entrants have to be at Churchill Downs by 11 a.m. on April 26. Meanwhile, Captain Cook, fourth as the favorite in the Wood, has 35 qualifying points for the Derby, a total that is unlikely to be enough to make the Derby field. Trainer Rick Dutrow doesn’t want to head that way anyway. “I saw what I had to see yesterday,” Dutrow said Sunday. “He ran with horses that were better than he’s been running with and they beat him. So, unless [owner Vinnie Viola] really wants to go all-in to try and get into the race - which I could completely understand - we’re not going to go.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.