The Peter Pan- Grade III
1 1/8 Miles Dirt Graded Stake Purse $200.00 Three-Year-Olds. At AQU
Since 2005, The Peter Pan has been the consolation prize for three-year-olds that, for whatever reason, couldn’t make the KYD. Mind you, $200.00 is not much of a consolation for $5,000.00, but it’s the glory that matters, right? Right? Yeah, right. The history of this race is scattered with all sorts from thousandairs to a few hundred-dollar winners. This year’s edition is another one of those tightly matched, hard to handicap events that brings together horses that passed up the Derby in favor of a stablemate or just missed the race on numbers or never stood a chance or never even tried. And all of that tends to make comparisons nearly impossible as so few of them have met each other before. As near as I can tell, it’s Winning Link Stables’ Private Money against a couple of Mb Stables’ horses Wealthy B Wonka and Self Love followed by The Sidley Stud’s longshot Decima Tech. Here’s the field:
Horse Owner Odds SRF
Private Money Winning Link Stables *3-1 95
Wealthy B Wonka Mb Stables 3-1 95
Decima Tech The Sidley Stud 8-1 95
Mr Milchick Mb Stables 5-1 95
Mystic Caller D J C Racing Stables 6-1 95
Unique Journey Waldo 8-1 95
Excavate Acber Farms 10-1 94
Haggis Glory The Sidley Stud 12-1 93
Son Of Mufasa Broken Spoke Stables 20-1 93
Liberty Street D J C Racing Stables 20-1 96
Daring Ned The Sidley Stud 30 1 89
1 Decima Tech The Sidley Stud 95
Decima Tech closed nicely in three qualifiers but was unlucky to finish out of the money in all, Each nonqualifier he raced in, he did well in. The grandson of Techfluence has been working the lights out all through April highlighted by a 1:36 3/5 mile.
2 Haggis Glory The Sidley Stud
Haggis Glory finished up the track in the BC Juvenile, then returned in February to try a qualifier in the $250.00 Davis Stakes and again ran up the track. It was at this point that his trainer took him off the track again and went back to intensive training, reworking adds and all. Then he returned to the races in a KEE big-ticket allowance race where he closed nicely for third, ready to return to stakes racing.
3 Son Of Mufasa Broken Spoke Stables 93
Son Of Mufasa has never raced beyond seven furlongs, but since his fourth-place finish in the $250.00 Animal Kingdom Stakes, he has been lighting up the training lights with impressive mile works highlighted by a 1:36 2/5 mile work.
4 Private Money Winning Link Stables 95
Private Money finished off the KYD qualifying season missing a ticket to the Derby by a nose finishing second in the Grade III Lexington at KEE. That was the Devils Tower colt’s fifth race bringing him into this race with a record of four out of five first or second place finishes, and since that win he has reaffirmed his 1:37 flat mile work, so he looks strong to continue on along the sophomore trail and looks to be the favourite to take this with his closing style.
5 Self Love Mb Stables 95
Self Love won not one, but two qualifiers for the KYD, but coming from a stable that was overburdened with qualified horses, was forced to sit the big race out. He won the Grade III Street Sense which leaves him also eligible for the BC, and the Grade III Withers but also ran second in the Grade II Remsen and third in the Grade I Pharoah Stakes. He also went on to run in the Grade I BG Stakes and the 1 1/8 miles found him out and he finished fifth. I think that may be the reason Dan selected others for the longer Derby. Now he’s here to prove that 1 1/8 miles is not too much.
6 Daring Ned The Sidley Stud 89
Daring Ned tried no less than six qualifiers and only managed a third and two fourths. He is a deep closer, so you would expect 1 1/8 miles would suit him well. Yet, his only try at 1 1/8 miles was a wash.
Mr Milchick comes here off back-to-back win, the most recent of which is the $125.00 Mine That Bird Derby at SUN. It took him five races to break his maiden and a couple more before another win, but now he’s on a streak, and the most recent win was 1 1/8 miles.
8 Mystic Caller D J C Racing Stables 92
Mystic Caller was an impressive come from behind second in the Grade II Rebel, but failed to fire in the Grade I BG Stakes so didn’t make the trip to CD. He’s been off since that early April race training lightly at six furlongs. I think maybe Dom is here to race Liberty Street, but I like this guy’s experience better.
9 Liberty Street D J C Racing Stables 96
With only four races under his belt, Liberty Street has the highest SRF last here of 96. That, however, was at 6 1/2 furlongs while winning the $200.00 NY Stallion Series – Your Biscuits. He ran second in a 1 mile – 70 yd allowance race at FG, so he has had some distance testing.
10 Wealthy B Wonka Mb Stables 95
After flopping in The Jerome at AQU, Wealthy B Wonka was pretty consistent through the KYD qualifying season with a third in the Grade III Withers and fourth in each of the Grade II Fountain of Youth Stakes and Grade II Wood Memorial. He has posted a post Wood mile work of 1:37 2/5 and should be toughened up enough to make it wire-to-wire here.
11 Unique Journey Waldo 95
Unique Journey tried the Grade II Rebel and finished within a length of first but finished in fifth place so has been resting ever since. He did register a nice come from behind in the seven-furlong Grade II San Vicente Stakes just prior to the Rebel. No recent mile works, but he did go 1:37 1/5 back in January.
12 Excavate Acber Farms 94
Excavate showed great promise back in January when he came from behind to finish second in the Grade III Withers qualifier but then failed to fire in the Grade II Rebel. Then he was a spectacular deep closer from eleventh to fourth in the Grade I SA Derby and it was at that point his connections decided to sit the Derby goings on out. Since then he has presented a 1:36 4/5 mile track work.
Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES
Leave a Reply