OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Chad Brown may not be out of this year’s Triple Crown series after all.
Though he didn’t have a starter in the Kentucky Derby and won’t have one in next Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, Brown may have found his Belmont Stakes horse in Hill Road, who came with a strong rally in the stretch under Flavien Prat to win Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes at Aqueduct by three-quarters of a length over McAfee.
McAfee, the half-brother to reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna, finished a half-length in front of his Rick Dutrow-trained stablemate Captain Cook, the pacesetting 7-5 favorite. The first three finishers of the Peter Pan get their entry and start fees - a total of $30,000 - waived for the June 7 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga.
However, McAfee is not Triple Crown nominated, and his connections would still have to a pay a $50,000 supplemental fee to run in the Belmont. They paid $1,000 to supplement to the Peter Pan.
Hill Road, third in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and third in the Tampa Bay Derby in his 3-year-old debut in March, missed a planned start in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial in April due to a fever. That basically knocked him out of Derby contention.
Brown told owner Kia Joorabchian, of Amo Racing USA, that he would try to get Hill Road to the Belmont, this year run at 1 1/4-miles at Saratoga, by way of the Peter Pan. Two years ago, Arcangelo won the Peter Pan and came back to win the Belmont Stakes.
“I want to thank the owner, Kia, for trusting me because it would have been easy for him to say ‘No, the Preakness is coming up light, I want to go,’ “ Brown said. “But he’s all about the horse and listening to his trainer and he’s starting to build quite an impressive stable in America. It’s a pleasure working with him, he really let me lay out a plan to get him to the Belmont and didn’t second-guess it.”
Brown entered the Peter Pan concerned about the seeming lack of pace in the field. But Captain Cook, under Manny Franco, outhustled Vassimo and Irad Ortiz Jr. for the early lead. Captain Cook was a length in front of Vassimo through a quarter in 23.36 seconds, a half-mile in 47.26 seconds and six furlongs in 1:11.57. By the middle of the turn, McAfee, under John Velazquez, had moved into second and confronted Captain Cook at the head of the lane.
In the stretch, those two ran together, with McAfee taking over inside the sixteenth pole. But Hill Road and Prat had commenced a rally leaving the half-mile pole, and moved into fourth turning for home. Despite Hill Road hanging on his left lead down the stretch, he was able to overtake McAfee about 20 yards from the wire.
Hill Road, a son of Quality Road, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.22 (94 Beyer Speed Figure) and returned $6.10 as the second choice.
“A little bit of pace developed and the horse ran great,” Brown said. “He wasn’t out the back, he had a few horses beat early and then down the backside he seemed pretty tractable. He kind of made a middle move there, kind of moved up in a tight spot, and paused again and then he came again. Flavien got along with him great. The only thing we have to work on is switching those leads in the lane. I didn’t expect that from him.”
Prat said that Hill Road doesn’t have much early speed, but down the backside “he was traveling good,” he said. “Then I went around. Once I got him outside, he made a good run.”
It’s unlikely Prat would stay with Hill Road for the Belmont Stakes. He rode Baeza to a third-place finish in the Kentucky Derby and that horse is expected to make his next start in the Belmont.
Unless McAfee’s owners pay a supplemental fee, it is likely Hill Road will be the only horse out of this race to run in the Belmont Stakes.
Still, McAfee ran the best race of his career, improving on his fifth-place finish in the Wood Memorial. With blinkers on, he sat third under Velazquez before making his bid for the lead and fighting to the wire.
“He surprised me today and it was a very good surprise,” Dutrow said. “I really liked watching him run. Johnny said he galloped out unbelievable, he said our other horse hit him through the lane, he lost his balance and momentum and his [focus] and he said by the time he got it all back together it was just a little too late.”
Dutrow also was pleased with Captain Cook, noting that perhaps a cutback in distance is in order moving forward.
“It might be a bridge too far for him, you know,” Dutrow said. “That’s okay, we can back him up or try to look for an easier spot going this long. He can get the journey, it’s just a matter of who he’s in there with.”
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