New York’s signature prep race for the Kentucky Derby, the Wood Memorial, was the anticipated feature attraction on a beautiful Saturday afternoon this past weekend at Aqueduct.

Yet to accommodate NBC’s national television coverage, the Wood was moved to race 9, pushing the Grade 1 Carter Handicap back to race 10 of 11 to anchor the guaranteed Pick 4 sequence.

Fittingly so.

Owned by local resident Roddy Valente, the talented — and equally gutsy — Bustin Stones stole the show with a hard-fought, front-running victory. The Grade 1 score was not only the first for the undefeated New York-bred, but was also the first in the careers of both Valente and trainer Bruce Levine.

While Valente, from Loudonville, paced the track grounds all afternoon, anxious to start his homebred son of City Zip, the later post time appears to have worked to their benefit.

The Aqueduct main track had taken considerable moisture earlier in the week, and racing was canceled on Friday in hopes of the best possible racing surface for the biggest day of the short Spring meet. With steady, strong winds and bright sunshine all day, the track dried out quickly as the Saturday card progressed, although the early races played favorably to closers down the middle of the track.

The gradual shift in track bias appeared to begin with Lucky Island in the sixth, who was forwardly placed throughout. One race later, J Be K took command into the far turn en route to a thoroughly impressive win in the Bay Shore, and Temporary Saint followed that effort with a wire-to-wire jaunt in the Excelsior.

War Pass worked hard on the engine in the Wood, and was only caught in the final stages, clearly indicating that the racing surface was playing much more to the hand of the speedy Bustin Stones than it had earlier in the day.

Through ominous franchise negotiations and lackluster winter racing, Aqueduct was in need of a wake-up call, and while War Pass was expected to provide that spark, it was the robust chestnut Bustin Stones that got the Big A buzzing.

On the track, Bustin Stones covered the seven furlongs in a quick 1:22.91, which was 0.76 seconds faster than J Be K ran the same distance. Off the track, it was the genuine exhilaration in the winner’s circle of Valente, Levine and their sizeable contingent that had made the trek down from Albany, kicking off a raucous celebration that spilled to the fourth floor of the clubhouse high above Aqueduct where champagne was served while admiring a looping video of the race.

Up next for Bustin Stones will be the prestigious Met Mile, the Memorial Day feature at Belmont Park.

Up next for War Pass appears to be the Kentucky Derby, although Nick Zito did insert some caution in his words after the running of the Wood Memorial.

On the heels of an abysmal performance in the Tampa Bay Derby, the juvenile champion from last year was in need of a return to his dominant self to not only re-establish his position atop his class, but to restore the confidence of his connections.

Standing alongside owner Robert LaPenta and trainer Nick Zito as the horses loaded for the Wood, LaPenta commented that he was more worried about this race than he had been the Breeders’ Cup.

Right from the break, it was clear that Zito’s instructions to jockey Cornelio Velasquez had been to get him on the lead at all costs, with both screaming, “Go, Go, Go” as the field streaked towards the clubhouse turn.

Was Pass was hounded in earnest by Inner Light to the backside through a quick opening quarter and a strong half-mile.

Off the far turn, War Pass had begun to shake free and opened a bit of daylight over Tale of Ekati, who had moved into second. Into the lane, Velasquez guided War Pass well off the rail, “just as we had discussed,” Zito would say later, reasoning the inside part of the track was not the best place to be.

Through the lane, War Pass grudgingly yielded to Tale of Ekati in the final yards, and while visually it was certainly an improved effort from what he had offered in Tampa, the final time told a concerning story.

The final running time for the Wood of 1:52.35 was not only the slowest since 1952, but was well over one full second slower than the honest but far-from-sensational Temporary Saint had run 31 minutes earlier.

War Pass appears to have now been established as a need-the-lead horse, and getting caught while running the final three-eighths of a mile in nearly 42 seconds casts a shadow on his chances of going longer at Churchill Downs.