ELMONT, N.Y. – Though some may be using Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes as a stepping-stone to the Belmont Stakes, Unified is simply using it as the third race of his career. An impressive winner of his first two starts, Unified will try to stretch his speed to 1 1/8 miles against seven rivals in the Peter Pan, one of four graded stakes on Saturday’s 11-race card. Unified, a son of Candy Ride, won his debut going six furlongs at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 21. He had eight weeks before his next start, which was a three-length victory in the Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes going seven furlongs at Aqueduct. Had trainer Jimmy Jerkens chosen to keep Unified sprinting, it likely would have meant waiting nine weeks until the Woody Stephens Stakes on the June 11 Belmont Stakes undercard. “I didn’t want to wait that long,” Jerkens said. “If you have a horse on the top of his game, it seems kind of stupid to sit around that long. Even though it is a mile and an eighth, it’s around one turn. You don’t have to worry how he’s going to go into the first turn, if he’s going to be rank. Seems like you can be a little rank in these kinds of races and it’s not the end of the world. That’s why I found it appealing.” Jerkens said that regardless of how Unified fares in the Peter Pan, running in the Belmont Stakes “might be stretching it.” Unified, who will break from post 7 under Jose Ortiz, is the only graded stakes winner in the field. Decorated Soldier won the Northern Spur Stakes at Oaklawn on April 16, while Governor Malibu won the Gander Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct in February. Rounding out the Peter Pan field are Adventist, third in the Wood Memorial; maiden winners Wild About Deb, Supah Czech, and Lost Iron; and the maiden Singleton.