Amo Racing's Hill Road (Quality Road) may have earned himself a tilt at the June 7 GI Belmont Stakes with his win in the GIII Peter Pan Stakes at Aqueduct Saturday.
“He bounced out of the Peter Pan in good shape,” trainer Chad Brown said Sunday. “Hopefully once we get him back under tack and he's healthy and good, we will go onto the Belmont.”
A debut winner at Leopardstown last August, Hill Road was third behind champion Citizen Bull (Into Mischief) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Del Mar last November for trainer Adrian Murray. Transferred to Brown, he opened 2025 with a third-place effort in the Mar. 8 GIII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby and had been expected to start in the GII Wood Memorial Stakes before being sidelined by a fever.
Brown said he was expecting a big comeback effort in the Peter Pan.
“I was not surprised–it was a good spot for him,” Brown said of the Peter Pan win. “After a little bit of a layoff, it was a reasonable spot for him to get going again. It wasn't too difficult of a race, it was at the right distance, at least off a layoff, and I think at a mile and a quarter, you'll see the best of him. That's what he's been looking for.”
Brown sent out reigning 3-year-old champion Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) to work four furlongs in :50 flat (131/187) over the Belmont Park dirt training track Sunday. The colt, who was third in the GII New Orleans Classic in his 4-year-old debut Mar. 22, is expected to make his next start in the June 28 GI Stephen Foster Stakes at Churchill Downs.
“He is doing fine. He is idling for a little while and is probably not going to run until the Stephen Foster in late June,” said Brown. “Today was a solo [breeze], just maintenance to stretch his legs. I might pick it up with him next week and do something a little more serious.”
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