The Grade 3 $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes at 1 1/8 miles May 10 at Belmont at the Big A that is touted as a steppingstone to the June 7 Belmont Stakes served up a preview of what might indeed happen in the final leg of the Triple Crown.

Rallying from eighth in the field of nine, Hill Road closed powerfully in the final furlong to collar the dueling Rick Dutrow Jr. trained duo of McAfee and Captain Cook and win the Peter Pan by three-quarters of a length.

"This horse wants a mile and a quarter," trainer Chad Brown said.

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Hill Road started his career last year on turf in Ireland and then was sent to the United States where he finished a promising third in last fall's FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile presented by TAA for then trainer Adrian Murray. After the Breeders' Cup he remained here and was sent to Brown. He began his 3-year-old campaign with a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby.

Brown looked at the Grade 2 Wood Memorial Stakes presented by Resorts World Casino as a ticket to the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve for Hill Road, but the colt developed a fever and missed the race which left him without the necessary qualifying points to contest the opening leg of the Triple Crown.

Believing Hill Road wants a 1 1/4-mile distance, Brown targeted the Belmont Stakes with the Peter Pan serving as a springboard to it.

"I want to thank the owner (Kia Joorabchian). It would have been easy for him to say 'The Preakness is coming up light. I want to go,' but he is starting to build an impressive stable in America and it's a pleasure working with him," Brown said. "He's all about his horse and listening to his trainer. He's let me lay out a plan to get to the Belmont and didn't second-guess me."

As much as a big effort in the Belmont would soothe the pain of missing the Kentucky Derby, at the time it was difficult to accept the twist of fate prior to the Wood Memorial that knocked the colt out of the Kentucky Derby picture.

Chad Brown. (Sue Kawczynski/Eclipse Sportswire)

"It's a hard phone call to make when you have a horse who wants to go a mile and a quarter early in his 3-year-old season," Brown said. "This was a horse you could see being a wise-guy horse in the Derby, but the owner took it as well as you can, and we started formulating plan B."

Captain Cook grabbed the lead before the first turn in the 1 1/8-mile stakes for 3-year-olds and was there turning for home as he battled with stablemate McAfee. McAfee, a Cloud Computing-sired half-brother to reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna, was third behind his stablemate's early fractions of :47:26 and 1:11.57. Later the two were then side by side throughout the stretch and at the eighth pole they had 3 1/2 lengths on Hill Road and jockey Flavien Prat, but it wasn't enough.

"I was very happy with McAfee's race and this just might be a little too far for (Captain Cook) to run against the top ones. But he didn't disgrace himself," Dutrow said. Both horses ran big."

While Captain Cook might try shorter races or easier two-turn races, Dutrow did not completely slam the door on running McAfee in the 1 1/4-mile Belmont Stakes.

"He surprised me today and it was a very good surprise," Dutrow said about McAfee, who finished in his last start in the Wood Memorial. "I liked watching him run and (jockey John Velazquez) said he galloped out unbelievable. He said our other horse hit him through the lane and he kinda lost his balance and momentum and when he got it back it was just a little bit too late. So, we might have something to go on."

McAfee is not nominated to the Triple Crown and would have to be supplemented to the Belmont at a cost of $50,000.

Hill Road ($6.10), the 2-1 second choice, covered the 1 1/8 miles in a final time of 1:49.22.