Quality Road could go for the Cigar (Z. Laskowski/EquiSport Photos)

QUALITY ROAD (Elusive Quality) passed his latest schooling test with flying colors Saturday morning at Aqueduct, proceeding professionally through a simulated race day scenario including both paddock and gate schooling.

The three-year-old Edward Evans homebred, scratched from the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Santa Anita on November 7 after a meltdown at the gate, shipped from trainer Todd Pletcher's Belmont Park barn at approximately 6 a.m. (EST) Saturday and settled into Aqueduct's receiving barn for several hours.

Shortly before 11 a.m., Quality Road was led to the Aqueduct paddock in company with stablemates Nite Light (Thunder Gulch) and Storm Play (Smart Strike), both of whom are also owned by Evans and trained by Pletcher.

The colt stood quietly in the saddling enclosure while being tacked up and, after regular jockey John Velazquez was given a leg up by Pletcher, made several circuits of the paddock before being handed off to a NYRA lead pony and taken to the track for a simulated pre-race warm-up with the two other horses. The group worked its way toward the gate, which was positioned at the back of the mile chute on Aqueduct's main track.

As he has done all week at Belmont under the supervision of former NYRA starter Bob Duncan, Quality Road loaded into the gate about 10 times without incident, both with and without Velazquez aboard, and led by both Duncan and assistant NYRA starter Guido Rouse. The colt stood in the gate for varying lengths of time before being backed out, and never balked or fussed.