Roadster Puts Speedway Stable in Derby Fast Lane

Speedway Stable's Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner learned a few things when Roadster won the April 6 Santa Anita Derby (G1).

One was the 3-year-old colt could come from behind and win. Another was he belonged at the top level when he passed Bob Baffert stablemate and juvenile champion Game Winner. And a third nugget, Fluor added, was that he and Weiner needed to find hotel rooms in Louisville, Ky., for the first Saturday in May.

Roadster will be the first Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) starter for Speedway Stable, which began racing horses in 2015.

The colt's name was one of the first to be leaked among Baffert's sophomore crop when TMZ approached the Hall of Fame trainer outside a restaurant asking about his next big horse. When the son of Quality Road  scored by 4 1/4 lengths on debut in late July, it was clear why Baffert mentioned his name.

Connections were confident in Roadster from the start. Speedway purchased Roadster for $525,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. He was bred and consigned by Arthur Hancock III's Stone Farm, and Hancock retained 10%. All involved were high on the colt as a classic prospect.

"In the breeding, you're looking for speed, yet stamina, to go a classic distance in this case," Fluor said. "That says you got a lot of fuel in the tank if you can go the classic distance. Then if you look in their background, a lot of these horses have closing capability in the family. That's what Arthur Hancock tried to raise at Stone Farm."

Roadster is out of the Silver Ghost mare Ghost Dancing, who produced Ascend, a son of Candy Ride  who won the 1 1/4-mile Woodford Reserve Manhattan Stakes (G1T). The Santa Anita Derby was Roadster's longest race yet at 1 1/8 miles. He'll have an extra eighth of a mile to go in the May 4 Kentucky Derby.

"Bob Baffert, before his first race, said to K.C. and me that this horse has a lot of potential and that he's very, very excited about it," Fluor said. "Bob's trained several horses for us, including Collected , who won the Pacific Classic (G1) and now is standing at stud. He didn't even say that about Collected, so he was very high on the horse—said he's bred to run all day, but he's got tactical speed."

Collected, who finished off the board in the 2016 Preakness Stakes (G1), was the first classic starter for Speedway Stable.

Weiner is president of Texas Crude Energy in Houston where Fluor serves as chairman after serving as president or CEO of the company from 1980-2001. Fluor also has ties to Southern California as a graduate of the University of Southern California who grew up in Arcadia near Santa Anita Park. A 2014 trip to Saratoga Race Course by Weiner and Fluor spurred interest in ownership, following in their fathers' footsteps.

The fathers owned horses in partnership. Beyond that, Peter's father, Robert, co-owned two-time Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) winner Alleged with Robert Sangster and served as chairman of the California Horse Racing Board.

Though Roadster hit a bump in the road with throat surgery after being beaten as the favorite in the Sept. 3 Del Mar Futurity (G1), he jumped back on the scene March 1, winning a one-mile allowance optional-claiming event.

Roadster's tactical speed was on display Saturday as he rallied from the back. Fluor described watching the race as unsettling at first because Roadster had never been so far back, but he came away learning the colt had another dimension.

"He doesn't have to be on the lead or second or third," Fluor said. "He can be way back because he has—I'll use (jockey) Mike Smith's term—he has some gears. He could be way back, he has some tactical speed, and he had a gear at the end. That's what we saw. We'd just never seen him that far back. The result was gratifying."

Besides his Pacific Classic score, Collected won four other graded stakes for Speedway Stable and placed second in the 2017 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1). Other top horses for Speedway include three-time grade 1-winning mare Hard Not to Like, grade 1 winner Noted and Quoted, and grade 3 winner Leigh Court.