High North looks to continue ascent in Peter Pan Stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Brad Cox came into the year thinking High North could be his horse for the Kentucky Derby. While High North didn’t do enough early to hop onto the Derby trail, he did enough recently to make Cox believe he’s seeing the horse he thought he had.

On Saturday, High North will attempt to win his first graded stakes when he heads a field of seven set to run 1 1/8 miles around one turn in the Grade 3, $350,000 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park. Eight were entered, but on Thursday, the connections of Diamond King confirmed that their horse would scratch to run in the Preakness Stakes on May 19.

The Peter Pan is the local prep for the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on June 9, but it remains to be seen if any of these horses will be pointing that way. Core Beliefs, third to Justify in the Santa Anita Derby, is not nominated to the Triple Crown, while others in here may have distance limitations.

Cox isn’t looking at this as a Belmont prep for High North. He is simply looking at it as another step toward lucrative stakes later in the year.

High North, a son of Midnight Lute owned by John Ed Anthony’s Shortleaf Stable, is coming off a 2 1/2-length victory in the Northern Spur Stakes on April 14 at Oaklawn Park. That came with blinkers added.

“I thought he may have been a touch strong early, but he finished up well, as opposed to some of his other races, where he was off the bridle and wherever he breaks is where he finished,” Cox said. “He doesn’t wear a whole lot of blinker. They’re smaller cups, enough to keep him focused and get him a little more involved. We want to be somewhat forwardly placed like we were last time.”

Blinkers helped Blended Citizen turn things around when he won the Jeff Ruby Steaks over the synthetic surface at Turfway Park on March 17. He came back with a fifth-place finish to Good Magic in the Blue Grass, his best performance in four tries on dirt.

Doug O’Neill, trainer of Blended Citizen, believes he is seeing the high-quality individual he thought he had coming into the year.

“He’s a horse that always impressed us, and he actually was shockingly average there for a while,” O’Neill said. “He’s always been a big horse, and mentally he’s catching up to his physical abilities. I think he’s going to run big.”

Gotta Go and Zing Zang, eighth and ninth in the Blue Grass Stakes, are both getting blinkers. Gotta Go has run well in one-turn races, including a second-place finish behind Strike Power in the Grade 3 Swale going seven furlongs at Gulfstream in February.

Core Beliefs found success once trainer Peter Eurton removed blinkers from his equipment. He won a maiden race by 3 1/4 lengths on March 8 and then finished third behind Justify in the Santa Anita Derby.

“I took them off on the stretch-out,” Eurton said. “I thought he didn’t need to be quite so keen. He did things more in a relaxed state.”

Just Whistle is coming off a perfect-trip maiden victory going two turns at Keeneland. Before that, he finished second to Hofburg in a maiden race at Gulfstream.

Transistor, 1 for 12, will be making his first start for trainer Rudy Rodriguez.