The Puma targets Haskell Stakes after Kentucky Derby scratch

The Puma has a new summer runway, and it leads straight to Monmouth Park’s $1,000,000 Haskell Stakes on Saturday, July 18. Trainer Gustavo Delgado’s decision gives the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby winner a defined next step after the Kentucky Derby scratch and places him back in the thick of the 3-year-old conversation.

That scratch came because of leg swelling tied to a skin infection, but the setback did not erase what The Puma had already built. The Essential Quality colt has gone 4 starts, with 1 win, 2 seconds and 1 third, and has banked $442,280. He was beaten by Chief Wallabee in his debut at Gulfstream Park, ran third to Kentucky Derby runner-up Renegade in the Sam F. Davis, won the Tampa Bay Derby by three-quarters of a length on March 7 at Tampa Bay Downs, and then missed the Florida Derby by a nose when he finished second. For horseplayers, that is the profile of a colt who has already been tested against graded company and keeps moving forward.

The Haskell route also tells you what Delgado thinks of the campaign. By choosing Monmouth’s summer Grade 1, he is bypassing the rest of the spring classic trail, including the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, and resetting The Puma for a race that fits his current arc. Delgado shipped the colt from Churchill Downs to Gulfstream Park on May 13, a practical sign that the barn is back in routine and looking beyond the Derby disappointment.

That timing matters. Monmouth has already put Haskell Day on the map for July 18, with first post at noon and five additional stakes, led by the Grade 2 United Nations. The track’s June 13 Haskell Preview Day gives The Puma a possible mid-June lead-in if Delgado wants one, but the larger point is that he will arrive fresh while much of the division has already been through the spring grind. That can be an edge in a race that usually gathers the nation’s best 3-year-olds, but it also means he will be meeting rivals with their own graded form and summer ambitions already established.

Javier Castellano has ridden The Puma in all four starts, which adds a layer of continuity that horseplayers should respect. Delgado has used this path before with Mage, his 2023 Kentucky Derby winner who later ran second in the Haskell after the Preakness. The Puma looks like the same kind of summer horse, one with enough class to matter and enough time left to improve.