Express Kid Dominates in Springboard Mile Upset

Folks in the horse racing business didn't think much of a yearling named Express Kid as he was sold for $2,000 at auction in Arizona. They better think again as he won the $300,000 Remington Springboard Mile Stakes at 34-1 odds at Remington Park Dec. 20. The big victory earned Express Kid 10 qualifying points for the 2026 Kentucky Derby (G1) while winning his second consecutive race this season at Remington Park. The rest of the top five finishers received points on a 5-3-2-1 scale. The 2-year-old Bodexpress colt bred in California by Richard Barton Enterprises, out of the Street Sense mare Sensationalize, cruised wire-to-wire under jockey Jose Alvarez in the Springboard Mile. Express Kid set fractions of :23.54, :47.58, and 1:12.83. His winning time was 1:38.99 on the fast surface. Paying $71, he hit the wire 6 1/4 lengths clear of favored Arctic Beast. Royalamerican was third. The Springboard winner has come a long way from being an afterthought at the Arizona Thoroughbred Breeders' Association Fall Mixed Sale of October 2024, where owner Steve Haahr of Puyallup, Wash., picked him up. Prior to that, Express Kid was put into the Fasig-Tipton California Fall Yearlings Sale last year, but the reserve price of $12,000 for the colt was not met. No one wanted him. His bankroll is now $236,902. Even trainer Wade Rarick had his doubts about Express Kid at one point. You don't start a horse that's going to get Kentucky Derby points in a 4 1/2-furlong race at Canterbury Park in Minnesota if you think the colt is going to amount to much. That's what Rarick eventually did with Express Kid against maidens going the short distance. That was the first start of his career on July 3. He only won by a neck at 7-1 odds. Rarick had tried blinkers on him right from the start and Express Kid's reaction to them surprised the trainer. "He broke so sharp in them, I was like, 'Wow!'" Rarick said. "I don't have a lot of these kind (that win $300,000 races). He is eligible for a lot of things in Arizona (where Rarick stables), but I think we might go a different direction with him now." Rarick has had his eye on moving toward Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., with some horses after training at Turf Paradise in Arizona around this time of year. Oaklawn boasts one of the top Kentucky Derby trail series of races starting with the $250,000 Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 3. It concludes with the $1.5 million Arkansas Derby (G1) March 28. The long odds on Express Kid were a product of all his races coming into the Springboard. Following his maiden win at a distance that can best be described as a workout, he did not impress. Express Kid was shipped from Canterbury to Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa, where he faced winners for the first time in the Prairie Meadows Freshman Stakes, and it was a non-descript second-place finish, three lengths behind the winner. Things were even worse when Express Kid was moved to Remington Park, running a dismal sixth in the Clever Trevor Stakes Sept. 28. He was 12 3/4 lengths behind winner Essential Time, but the results were flipped massively in the Springboard. Essential Time finished seventh, 12 3/4 lengths behind Express Kid. That's a difference of 25 1/2 lengths from the last time the two horses faced each other on the Remington Park main track. "He broke good," Alvarez said of the winner. "I just let him go a little bit (on the lead) and when I asked him to run at the quarter pole (near the top of the stretch), he gave me everything he had." The previous win for Express Kid came on the grass at Remington Park when he dropped in class to the allowance non-winners of two career races level. He won by a head going 7 1/2 furlongs.