Wood Memorial 2016: TV Schedule, Post Positions, Odds, Contenders and More

As New York begins to thaw from its winter, horse racing starts taking center stage with the Wood Memorial Stakes on Saturday, April 9, from Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. 

The Wood Memorial is a Grade 1, $1 million race for three-year-olds that can be used as good preparation for the big Triple Crown races. 

NBC Sports Network will televise the race, with coverage beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET, according to AllHorseRacing.ag.

Here are the race's post positions and odds, courtesy of Jonathan Lintner of the Courier-Journal:

Post	Horse	Odds
1	Shagaf	2-1
2	Adventist	10-1
3	Trojan Nation	30-1
4	Tale of S'avall	20-1
5	Flexibility	8-1
6	Matt King Coal	3-1
7	Dalmore	12-1
8	Outwork	5-2

This is a 1 ⅛-mile race that will surely boost the winner ahead of May's Kentucky Derby, and all eyes are going to be on Shagaf. 

The Kentucky colt is unbeaten in his first three races by a combined 10 lengths, with two of them coming at Aqueduct. Most recently, he won the Gotham Stakes on March 5, as he used a late surge to secure victory:

His trainer, Chad Brown, believes Shagaf still can do a lot more to prove he is one of the horses to beat heading into spring, as he spoke with Tom LaMarra of BloodHorse.com:

"

I think the main reason is his speed figures haven't been super-impressive or really fast. But he's undefeated and is proven to have a tremendous amount of stamina. The faster horses will garner most of the attention.

He has already made a lot of progress, but I do see room for further improvement.

"

With questions of his speed at hand, starting on the rail might not be the best starting position for Shagaf. A slow start would put him with a lot of work to do inside, which would force him to head outside, make his move and overtake the field. 

He'll have his hands full with the likes of Matt King Coal, who has three wins in five career starts. A day after Shagaf took the Gotham Stakes, Matt King Coal took first at Aqueduct in the allowance/optional claiming. 

He's shown great things for the past year, according to Churchill Downs announcer Travis Stone:

Headlined by these two, the Wood Memorial is set to provide a nice appetizer to the Kentucky Derby, as horse racing fans will get an idea of which horses they have to watch as the Triple Crown schedule approaches.

Stats courtesy of Equibase.com.