On Tuesday afternoon, trainer Todd Pletcher changed course and announced that Circular Quay, whom he was pointing to Saturday’s 83rd running of the Grade 1, $750,000 Wood Memorial for three-year-olds at nine furlongs, would instead train up to the May 5th Kentucky Derby.

After Pletcher returned from his trip to Dubai earlier this week, he was back in Florida and watched Circular Quay train before deciding he needed extra time. Circular Quay’s last race was a 2 ¼-length win in the March 10th Louisiana Derby, meaning he will now have eight weeks between starts.

The Wood Memorial was being billed as a showdown between Circular Quay and last year’s Remsen winner, Nobiz Like Shobiz. Now the matchup is between Any Given Saturday, Circular Quay’s replacement, and Nobiz Like Shobiz. The Wood Memorial will be race eight of 11 with a 4:45 p.m. EDT post. The race will be shown live on ESPN during its one-hour telecast that begins at 4 p.m,. and there will be a $400,000 guaranteed all-stakes pick four pool featuring the Bay Shore, Excelsior and Carter Handicaps in addition to the Wood Memorial.

“We had a change of hearts when trying to analyze the best way of getting everyone to the Derby,” Pletcher said.

Any Given Saturday, owned by Winstar Farm and Padua Stables, was beat a nose by last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile champ Street Sense in the March 17th Tampa Bay Derby, his last start. It was a tough race between two tough horses, as Street Sense set the mile and a sixteenth track record that day of 1:43.11.

“Running him back in three weeks means he now gets four weeks to the big race instead of three,” Pletcher said of Any Given Saturday, who was originally being pointed to next weekend’s Blue Grass at Keeneland. “We figured this was the best approach for him.”

Any Given Saturday may be just as good, if not better than Circular Quay, so the 83rd Wood Memorial has lost no luster. In five career starts, the son of Distorted Humor has never been beaten by more than a half-length. He won his first two career races on Polytrack before finishing second in Churchill’s Kentucky Jockey Club. Prior to his loss to Street Sense, the colt’s only other 2007 start was a 2 ¾-length triumph in the Tampa Bay Derby prep, the Sam Davis.

“He’s never run a poor race,” Pletcher said of Any Give Saturday. “We’re hoping he moves forward to his next race.”

Pletcher also entered Gotham winner Cowtown Cat in the Wood Memorial, but it seems he is unlikely to run.

“Any Given Saturday is flying to New York on Thursday, so Cowtown Cat is in there more as an insurance policy in case of any traveling difficulties,” said Pletcher, who left Cowtown Cat in New York following the Gotham. “Cowtown Cat is likely for the Illinois Derby.”

While Any Given Saturday was running at Tampa Bay Downs, Elizabeth Valando’s Nobiz Like Shobiz stayed on the east coast of Florida and ran in the Holy Bull and Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream. He won his seasonal debut in the Holy Bull by 1 ½ lengths before finishing a half-length behind Scat Daddy in a third-place Fountain of Youth effort.

After some early trouble in the Fountain of Youth, Nobiz Like Shobiz did not exactly take the step forward that his trainer, Barclay Tagg, was looking for. Since his last start, the son of Albert the Great has trained in blinkers and will wear them in a race for the first time in the Wood.

“He’s got plenty of talent, but he’s still a little immature,” Tagg said. “Hopefully, the blinkers will help. He’s never done anything wrong in the mornings, so it’s hard to say what impact the blinkers have had on him in his training.”

The Wood Memorial will be a key race for Nobiz Like Shobiz with many other three-year-olds showing rapid improvement heading into the Kentucky Derby.

“I’m very anxious about the Kentucky Derby,” said Tagg, who saddled Funny Cide to a runner-up finish in the 2003 Wood Memorial before going on to win the Derby and Preakness. “But for some horses it takes longer than May 5th to mature.”

Tagg is hoping Nobiz Like Shobiz can put in an effort similar to the one he displayed in his last start of 2006 when he dusted seven rivals to win the Remsen here by 6 ½ lengths.

“He did well last fall over this track and distance, so I don’t see why he’d have a problem Saturday,” Tagg said.

Summer Doldrums, the beaten even-money favorite in the Gotham, will try to run back to his February 10th Whirlaway effort when he easily handled lesser by 5 ¼ lengths. Within striking range in the Gotham but three-wide around both turns, the Street Cry colt finished evenly to be a close third.

“He obviously regressed in the Gotham, but still only got beat 2 ½ lengths by a nice horse,” said Rick Viollete Jr., who trains the colt for Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence. “If he can move back to the level he showed in the Whirlaway, he’s a serious horse.”

With only $21,344 in graded stakes earnings, Summer Doldrums would need to finish well in the Wood Memorial to earn a spot in the Kentucky Derby.

“If he runs 1-2, he’s probably in,” Violette put it simply. “If he’s not in the top two, then he probably doesn’t belong in the Derby right now.”

Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey was leaning towards not running the Phipps Stable’s Sightseeing in the Wood, but decided to enter after he learned Circular Quay would not be in the starting gate.

Sightseeing was beaten 11 lengths in a fifth-place effort behind Nobiz Like Shobiz in last year’s Remsen, but has run well in a pair of allowance tries this year at Gulfstream, including a recent third behind Chelokee, who returned to be a troubled third in the Florida Derby last weekend.

“He had a bad post in his last race and was wide the whole way,” McGaughey said. “Getting off a track where you have to go to keep in the race should help him. Aqueduct is a better track to let him get away from there and relax.”

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas will start Overbrook Farm’s Flashstorm in the Wood after winning two of three starts at Oaklawn this season. The Storm Cat colt just broke his maiden January 20th and recently took an entry-level allowance by five lengths.

Christopher Hall’s Reptilian Smarts figures to be the longest price in the Wood after upsetting an entry-level allowance group last time out at odds of 14-1.