Problem pair in Peter Pan

ELMONT, N.Y. - Imperial Council and Hello Broadway have shown the talent but not the temperament to compete in a Triple Crown race. Their respective trainers have attempted to work on each colt's individual quirks. The results of that work will be known Saturday when both colts run in the Grade 2, $200,000 Peter Pan at Belmont Park.

The Peter Pan, run at 1 1/8 miles, is the local prep for the $1 million Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown, here on June 6. The Peter Pan also is the third leg of a late pick-four wager with a guaranteed pool of $350,000.

Imperial Council won two of his first three starts, before finishing a well-beaten second to I Want Revenge in the Grade 3 Gotham. He was bet down to 5-2 second choice in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial but acted up terribly in the paddock - he fell on his posterior while attempting to be saddled. Those antics obviously compromised him as he finished fifth in the Wood and was removed from the Derby trail.

Trainer Shug McGaughey said Imperial Council has been more settled since he's been at Belmont Park. McGaughey has schooled Imperial Council several times in the paddock - and planned to do so again Friday - in an attempt to have his mind right.

"I'm going to be disappointed if he goes over there and acts good and doesn't run better than he did last time," McGaughey said.

Though Hello Broadway won his last race - a first-level allowance at Keeneland - he bore out badly down the backstretch and again nearing the wire. Trainer Barclay Tagg has equipped Hello Broadway with an extension blinker over his right eye, but no blinker over the left eye.

"I want him to see the inside, I don't want him to see the outside," Tagg said.

Tagg believes Hello Broadway will prefer the wide, sweeping turns of Belmont as opposed to the smaller turns at Pimlico, which is why he isn't running in the Preakness.

Charitable Man won the Grade 2 Futurity over this track last September and has only raced once since, a seventh-place finish in the Blue Grass Stakes. Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Charitable Man emerged from the Blue Grass in great shape.

Scorewithcater ships in from Southern California for Doug O'Neill. This colt's claim to fame is that he twice finished ahead of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird at Sunland Park. Stately Character, Brave Victory, and Al Khali round out the Peter Pan field.