Timeline preps for Haskell in Pegasus Stakes

Trainer Chad Brown will prep the undefeated Timeline for the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational on Sunday at Monmouth Park, where he will take on four seemingly overmatched rivals in the Grade 3, $100,000 Pegasus Stakes.

Timeline was purchased for $500,000 as a yearling at the 2015 Keeneland September sale by the Woodford Racing partnership, which is managed by Bill Farish and Ben Haggin. A son of Hard Spun, Timeline did not race at age 2 but is 3 for 3 this year, including a 3 1/2-length victory in the Grade 3 Peter Pan at Belmont Park in May.

The Peter Pan and Haskell are both 1 1/8-mile races, although the distance is run around a single turn at Belmont.

“I wanted to try him at two turns ahead of the Haskell,” Brown said of the 1 1/16-mile Pegasus.

Timeline had two workouts at Saratoga in May 2016 but then didn’t breeze again until November. He closed late to win a seven-furlong maiden race at Gulfstream Park in March by a half-length. In April, he rolled to a 13 1/2-length victory going a mile over a sloppy track at Aqueduct. He then won the Peter Pan over a sloppy, sealed track.

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Brown, whose large stable is based in New York, also has 40 stalls at Monmouth. He sent Timeline to New Jersey this week.

"He's settled in, and we're going to school in the paddock,” Brown said.

Javier Castellano, who has ridden Timeline in each of his starts, will be at Monmouth for the Pegasus. He also has mounts in the two preceding races, both high-level optional claimers.

Castellano rides expected favorite Summer Reading in race 8 for trainer Jimmy Jerkens and in race 9 is named on both halves of a Tim Hill-trained entry that includes the millionaire Kharafa.

While Timeline seems to tower over his Pegasus challengers, anything can happen in a horse race. Last year, Unified, who was undefeated in three starts, came into the Pegasus off a victory in the Peter Pan and finished fifth as the 3-10 favorite.

Honor the Fleet, trained by Louis Albertrani, looks to be Timeline’s main challenger. He won back-to-back maiden and optional-claiming races at Laurel Park in March and April. Most recently, he finished fifth in the Sir Barton on the Preakness undercard. The Sir Barton is restricted to 3-year-olds who have never won an open stakes race.

In addition to Timeline, others being pointed to the $1 million Haskell, which is a Win and You’re In for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, include Belmont Stakes runner-up Irish War Cry and last year’s 2-year-old male champion, Classic Empire, who was declared from the Belmont with a hoof abscess.

The race also could lure Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming and/or Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit, who are both trained by Todd Pletcher, and West Coast, the winner of the Easy Goer Stakes at Belmont last weekend.

Brown won his first Triple Crown race when Cloud Computing defeated Classic Empire by a head in the Preakness last month. Brown said he is “leaning to the Jim Dandy” with Cloud Computing but that the July 30 Haskell has not been ruled out.

“No final decision has been made,” he said.