The Puma, scratched from the Kentucky Derby the morning of the race due to a swollen pastern apparently resulting from a skin infection in his leg, returned to his home base at Gulfstream Park on Thursday where he’ll continue preparations for the second half of his 3-year-old campaign. The current plan is to launch his comeback in the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park on July 18. “He went back to the track about four days ago at Churchill Downs but we decided to bring him back home to Gulfstream Park where it will be easier to get him ready for the second half of the season,” Gustavo Delgado Jr., son of trainer Gustavo Delgado, explained on Friday. “There are still a lot of details and little things that need to be done to get him off the vets’ list. Things that can take time, so we felt it was just best to cross a line through the whole Triple Crown series and concentrate on the second half of the year rather than try to rush him back for the Belmont.” The Puma was considered among the leading candidates in this year’s Kentucky Derby off his victory in the Tampa Bay Derby and near miss in the Grade 1 Florida Derby here three weeks later. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “The Derby was our main goal and it’s disappointing all that planning and hard work, in the end, did not pan out,” said Delgado. “The Haskell and Travers later this summer at Saratoga are the next two major races for 3-year-olds and that’s what we are aiming for at the moment. “We’ll start him back working in about three weeks or so. It’s basically the same schedule we followed a few years ago with Mage after he finished third in the Preakness and leading up to his second-place finish in the Haskell.” Hughes moving tack Although Micah Husbands has now become trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.’s go-to rider here this summer, he will share some of the business from Gulfstream Park’s perennial leading trainer with newcomer Rasheed Hughes, who has moved his tack locally after spending much of the last two seasons riding in western Canada, primarily at Century Downs in Alberta. Hughes got off to a fast start in South Florida, winning the Honey Ryder Stakes aboard Spirit Doll for Joseph here on May 2. The victory was one of three races he won on the card. “Rasheed is from Barbados and won the Barbados Gold Cup for me last year on Harrow,” said Joseph. “He’s got plenty of experience and won a lot of races in Canada the past couple of seasons and I think he’s going to do very well here.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.