Belmont Stakes an option for Peter Pan hero Global Camapign

Exiting Global Campaign’s victory Saturday in the Peter Pan Stakes (G3), it’s not a question of which race he’ll enter on Belmont Stakes weekend, but whether he’ll be there at all.

Hunter Rankin, president of Sagamore Farm, which campaigns the son of Curlin along with WinStar Farm, said connections have made a later summer target their priority.

“The ultimate goals with him would be the big 3-year-old races at Saratoga — the Travers and all that,” Rankin said. “We’d love to map out a plan where he gets there.”

In terms of the Belmont, Rankin added that “we’ll just have to see” how Global Campaign exits Saturday’s Peter Pan.

Between his debut victory on Jan. 5 and second out score on Feb. 9, the Stanley Hough trainee missed a work due to a foot problem. And then exiting a fifth in the Fountain of Youth (G2), he was given time to heal having grabbed a quarter.

Rankin said Global Campaign “got stepped on” at some point in the Peter Pan, though he went on to stalk a rapid pace set by Federal Case, passed by after 3/4 of a mile and hit the wire in time to hold off Sir Winston’s rally.

“He’s fine,” Rankin said. “He’s not sore or anything, but we’ll have to see how that foot does. But he ran huge. I was very impressed given the pace scenario and everything else how he kicked on.

“You can’t, obviously, rule out the Belmont. I want to make sure we do the best thing for him for the entire year, not just for the next four weeks.”

Belmont also cards the Woody Stephens (G1) at seven furlongs and Easy Goer at 1 1/16 miles on June 8.

In the meantime, Global Campaign will ship back to Churchill Downs on Monday to continue training, now a winner of three races in four starts.

“I think he would be competitive,” Rankin said of the Belmont. “It would be a different pace scenario, and I think he could go on. I don’t think a mile and a half would necessarily bother him.

“The Woody Stephens would be great. The Belmont would be great. But I think it’s more about him an the rest of his year than whether we do that.”

Should Global Campaign run in the Belmont Stakes, Hough would have his first starter in the final leg of the Triple Crown. His best finish in a classic came in 1982 when Reinvested ran third in the Kentucky Derby.

"It would be great, no question," said Hough, who came out of retirement in 2018. "It'd be a real honor and something to cross off that list, but that's a race that you really need to work into.

"It's very difficult because that likely will be the last time they run a mile and a half on the dirt. It's a special race. People don't really know how hard it is even to get there. I've run a lot of horses and never ran one there."