Revolutionary odds-on to win Withers

By: SPORTS NETWORK

Ozone Park, NY (Sports Network) - The horse has won just one race in four starts, but Revolutionary has been made the 3-5 morning line favorite versus seven other 3-year-olds in Saturday's $200,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct.

The 1 1/16-mile stakes, a prep for Aqueduct's $1 million Wood Memorial on April 6, is part of the "Road to the Kentucky Derby" series, with the winner receiving 10 points.

Revolutionary, trained by Todd Pletcher, will start from post 3 with Javier Castellano riding the colt for the first time.

"The key will be for him to break cleanly and put himself in a good stalking position, or if it were a paceless race he could possibly be on the lead," said Pletcher. "The main thing is we want him to get away cleanly and get into a nice rhythm."

Owned by WinStar Farm, Revolutionary has a second and two third-place finishes to along with his lone victory. In fact, he's coming off his maiden win at Aqueduct on Dec. 28 when he registered an 8 1/2-length triumph versus six challengers.

"(The improved performance) was a combination of a lot of things, the stretch out the, two turns, the clean start, a good trip," said Pletcher. "We weren't surprised he did something impressive, and it was the first time everything had gone smoothly. He didn't have a bad trip when he was second at Belmont, but I thought the track that day was very speed favoring and it was hard to make up ground. A talented horse got loose and we just couldn't run him down, and he had a horrible start in the one-turn race at Aqueduct."

Post time for the Withers is scheduled for 4:18 p.m. (ET).

Here is the field in post position order for the Withers: Long River, Irad Ortiz Jr., 7-2; Valid, Junior Alvarado, 7-2; Revolutionary, Javier Castellano, 3-5; Escapefromreality, Jose Ortiz, 6-1; Amerigo Vespucci, Erick Rodriguez, 15-1; Siete de Oros, Maria Remedio, 8-1; Champion Boy, Eddie Castro, 30-1 and Smooth Bert, Mike Luzzi, 15-1. Long River and Valid are coupled as an entry.