Hill Road Punches Ticket to Belmont in Peter Pan

For the longest time in the stretch, it looked like two 3-year-olds trained by Rick Dutrow Jr. would complete the exacta in the $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes (G3). Then the mile-and-an-eighth race that's touted as a steppingstone to the June 7 Belmont Stakes (G1) served up a preview of what might indeed happen in the final leg of the Triple Crown. Rallying from eighth in the field of nine, Amo Racing USA's Hill Road closed powerfully in the final furlong to collar the dueling Dutrow duo of McAfee and Captain Cook and win the Peter Pan by three-quarters of a length May 10 at Aqueduct Racetrack. "This horse wants a mile and a quarter," trainer Chad Brown said. A son of Quality Road, Hill Road started his career last year on turf in Ireland and then was sent to the United States where he finished a promising third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) for trainer Adrian Murray. He remained here and was sent to Brown and began his 3-year-old campaign in the Tampa Bay Derby (G3), again finishing third. Brown looked at the Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) as a ticket to the Kentucky Derby (G1) but the colt developed a fever and missed the race, which left him without the necessary qualifying points to contest the opening leg of the Triple Crown. Believing Hill Road, who was bred in Kentucky by Lynch Bages and Camas Park Stud, wants a 1 1/4-mile distance, Brown targeted the Belmont with the Peter Pan as a springboard to it. "I want to thank the owner (Kia Joorabchian). It would have been easy for him to say 'The Preakness is coming up light. I want to go.' But he is starting to build an impressive stable in America and it's a pleasure working with him," Brown said. "He's all about his horse and listening to his trainer. He's let me lay out a plan to get to the Belmont and didn't second-guess me." As much as a big effort in the Belmont would soothe the pain of missing the Kentucky Derby, at the time it was difficult to accept the twist of fate prior to the Wood that knocked the colt out of the Kentucky Derby picture. "It's a hard phone call to make when you have a horse who wants to go a mile and a quarter early in his 3-year-old season," Brown said. "This was a horse you could see being a wise-guy horse in the Derby. But the owner took it as well as you can and we started formulating plan B." Dutrow saw an abrupt switch in Triple Crown thoughts in the final stages of the Peter Pan. St. Elias Stable's Captain Cook grabbed the lead before the first turn in the 1 1/8-mile stakes for 3-year-olds and the son of Practical Joke was there turning for home as he battled with stablemate McAfee. McAfee, a Cloud Computing half brother to reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna, was third behind his stablemate's early fractions of :47:26 and 1:11.57. The two were then side by side throughout the stretch and at the eighth pole they had 3 1/2 lengths on Hill Road and jockey Flavien Prat, but it wasn't enough. Black Type Thoroughbreds, Swinbank Stables, Judy Hicks, and Scott Rice's McAfee took second by half-length over Captain Cook, the Withers Stakes winner who was the 7-5 favorite. "It was exciting for us," Dutrow said. "I was very happy with McAfee's race and this just might be a little too far for (Captain Cook) to run against the top ones. But he didn't disgrace himself. Both horses ran big." While Captain Cook might try shorter races or easier two-turn races, Dutrow did not completely slam the door on running McAfee in the 1 1/4-mile Belmont Stakes. "He surprised me today and it was a very good surprise," Dutrow said about the fifth-place finisher in the Wood. "I liked watching him run and (jockey John Velazquez) said he galloped out unbelievable. He said our other horse hit him through the lane and he kinda lost his balance and momentum and when he got it back it was just a little bit too late. So we might have something to go on." McAfee is not nominated to the Triple Crown and would have to be supplemented to the Belmont at a cost of $50,000. Hill Road ($6.10), the 2-1 second choice, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.22. Out of the Lemon Drop Kid mare Exotic Notion, he has won two of his five career starts. He is the second graded stakes winner of the year for sire Quality Road, who stands the 2025 breeding season at Lane's End for $150,000.