So we have the draw for the Wood Memorial this Saturday.  The one thing that pops right out, is my 2nd rated horse, Normandy Invasion doesn’t have enough points, so he must accumulate enough to secure his spot in the lineup.  It’s pretty interesting and for my money, not quite right!  Normandy Invasion must run big enough to beat a couple of really – really – really good horses on Saturday and then recover to win the Derby.   It’s not impossible, but it is a challenge, over the years there have been numerous great horses that failed to win the KD largely because they ran too big in their last prep.   Point Given and Afleet Alex come to mind right off the bat.   Also, the idea of having only 2 prep races in the 3 year old year is also very challenging, it seems that 3 or 4 prepares a horse better, but I don’t want to get too hung up on this argument as Chad Brown is a supremely gifted trainer.   All this being said, Normandy Invasion ran a very decent come-put race in Louisiana and should run a terrific race in the Wood.  Its’ my guess if he runs in the range of  77.5 to a 78.5 in the Wood he will be perfectly positioned to run giant in the KD.   Here is the problem, the winner of the Wood, might well have to run near an 80.0 to win.  The last horse that ran that big in The Wood Memorial was Bellamy Road and we all saw him — PREDICTABLY – go down in burning flames on the first Saturday in May.   I’d be much more sanguine on Normandy Invasion if he didn’t have to do TOO MUCH this Saturday.  Oh yeah,  there is alwas the Chad Brown factor that might well be the really important factor of all the important factors…  Anyway, Vyjack and Verrazano and Normandy Invasion  should make this one of the great Wood Memorials of all time…let’s hope…