Bon Voyage!

Before last week's $91,900 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, Wheatley Stable's Trainer Bill Winfrey pointed gaily to the magnificent shiner that one of his horses had given him when it kicked him in the barn. "Tell you what I'll do," he said. "If they beat our Bold Lad, I'll eat the steak I've been wearing on my eye."

Cook it rare. At post time, the odds on Bold Lad were 1-2--despite the fact that last year's two-year-old champion had raced only once since last October, had never run around two turns, or gone the 1 1/2-mile distance of the Wood. He had been laid up all winter with painful "splints," tumor-like growths on his shinbones. Nonetheless, he had won six straight stakes and $392,996, and odds makers already had installed him as the 8-5 favorite to win the Kentucky Derby May 1. Nobody paid much attention to Isador Bieber's Flag Raiser (odds: 7-1), a colt that anybody could have claimed for $7,000 last April--if anybody had wanted him. True, Flag Raiser had won two in a row, including this month's Gotham Stakes, by a total of 91 lengths, but the railbirds insisted that he was strictly "early speed."

Better early than late. At the break, Flag Raiser shot in front, opened up a five-length lead. Bold Lad moved into second place and stayed there, while the rest of the eleven-horse field was strung out up the track. Going into the final turn, Jockey Manuel Ycaza clucked to Bold Lad, and the white-stockinged chestnut slowly began to close the gap. But Flag Raiser was far from through. With Jockey Bob Ussery whipping furiously, he beat off Bold Lad's challenge, and in the end it was the favorite who tired. Almost unnoticed, Mrs. Ben Cohen's Hail to All (odds: 6-1) came out of nowhere to take the place.

"We'll send our horse to the Derby," promised Flag Raiser's happy trainer, Hirsch Jacobs, who has never had a Derby champ although he has sent more winners to the post than any other trainer in the U.S. "He's earned the trip." Bon voyage! Over the years, some pretty fair horses have won the Wood. Nashua, Bold Ruler and Native Dancer, for example. All three went to Churchill Downs. All three were Derby favorites. None won.

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