'I Liked What I Saw': Peter Pan Winner Hill Road Tunes Up For Belmont
Amo Racing USA's Hill Road completed his first work on Saturday toward the $2-million Belmont Stakes (G1) on June 7 at Saratoga Race Course.
Trained by Chad Brown, the Quality Road bay covered a half-mile in 48.75 seconds to the inside of Lordship over the Belmont Park dirt training track. It was Hill Road's first breeze back since a closing three-quarter-length score in the nine-furlong Peter Pan (G3) on May 10 at Belmont at the Big A.
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'He worked super, I'm really pleased with him,' said Brown. 'He had a nice gallop-out. He is coming along really well. He came out of his last race really well. I put this horse Lordship on the outside of him, they were a good match, they galloped out strong. They are two endurance-type horses that are kind of stayers.
'I just wanted a steady work but with a strong gallop-out. These are staying horses that the best part of their works and races will be the late stages, I liked what I saw around the turn galloping out. He is very fit now, Hill Road,' Brown continued. 'He is in a good part of his form cycle. I'm just looking to maintain where I'm at with that horse.'
Hill Road improved from a pair of thirds in his two previous stateside outings, finishing 4 3/4 lengths back of Citizen Bull in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile in November at Del Mar for trainer Adrian Murray before being transferred to Brown and finishing 6 1/4 lengths behind Owen Almighty in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby on March 8.
Hill Road looks to join Counterpoint [1951], High Gun [1954], Gallant Man [1957], Cavan [1958], Coastal [1979], Danzig Connection [1986], A.P. Indy [1992], Tonalist [2014], and Arcangelo [2023] as Peter Pan winners to subsequently score in the Belmont Stakes.
Bred in Kentucky by Lynch Bages LTD and Camas Park Stud, Hill Road was a $350,000 purchase at the 2023 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and is out of the winning Lemon Drop Kid mare Exotic Notion, a half-sister to multiple graded stakes-winning multimillionaire and prominent sire City of Light.
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