Kentucky Derby prep: 34-1 long shot upsets Springboard Mile

Folks in the horse-racing business did not think much of a yearling named Express Kid when he was sold for $2,000 at auction in Arizona. They better think again after he won at 34-1 odds Saturday night in the $300,000 Springboard Mile.

The victory earned Express Kid 10 qualifying points for Kentucky Derby 2026 while winning his second consecutive race this season at Remington Park.

Click here for Remington Park entries and results.

The 2-year-old, California-bred colt by Bodexpress out of Street Sense mare Sensationalize cruised gate to wire under jockey José Álvarez. The race offered 10-5-3-2-1 Derby qualifying points.

The new Springboard winner has come a long way from being an afterthought at the Arizona Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association fall-mixed sale of October 2024. That was where owner Steve Haahr of Puyallup, Wash., picked him up for the pittance of $2,000. It was practically a buy-one, get-one-free price. Express Kid was put into the Fasig-Tipton California Fall yearling sale last year, but the reserve price of $12,000 for the colt was not met. No one wanted him.

Even trainer Wade Rarick had his doubts about Express Kid at one point. You don’t start a horse that is 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 was what Rarick eventually did with Express Kid against maidens going the short distance. That was the first start of his career July 3. He won by only a neck at 7-1 odds. Rarick had tried blinkers on him right from the start, and Express Kid’s reaction surprised the trainer.

“He broke so sharp in them, I was like, wow,” said Rarick, whose stable is based in Arizona. “I don’t have a lot of these kind (who win $300,000 races). He is eligible for a lot of things in Arizona, but I think we might go a different direction with him now.”

Rarick has had his eye on moving toward Oaklawn 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 Smarty Jones Stakes on Jan. 3. It concludes with the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby on March 28.

There was a logical reason Express Kid, who returned $71.00 to win, went off at the second-longest odds of any Springboard Mile victor. Texas Bling in 2012 carried the biggest price of $259.60. The long odds Saturday night were a product of all his races coming into the Springboard. After his maiden win at a distance that can best be described as a workout, he did not impress. Express Kid was shipped from Canterbury Park to Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa, where he faced winners for the first time in the $100,000 Prairie Meadows Freshman Stakes. It was a non-descript, second-place finish, three lengths behind the winner.

Things were even worse when Express Kid was moved to Remington, running sixth in the $150,000 Clever Trevor Stakes on 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,” Álvarez said Saturday night. “I just let him go a little bit, and when I asked him to run at the quarter pole, he gave me everything he had.”

The previous win for Express Kid came on the grass at Remington Park, where he dropped in class to the allowance level in a race for non-winners of two. He won by a head going 7 1/2 furlongs.

If you think the sale world was indifferent to him, check out the jockeys who have ridden him. In his five starts Express Kid has had five different riders. This was the first time Álvarez had been on him in an official race. Walter de la Cruz won with him in the grass race at Remington on Nov. 6.

When Álvarez let out a notch in the early going of the race, Express Kid extended his lead from two lengths after a half-mile to 6 1/4 lengths at the finish. Jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. thought enough of undefeated, 4-5 Arctic Beast that he traveled to Remington to make the colt his only mount of the night. The odds-on favorite made his move turning for home, but the gap between him and the winner kept growing. Arctic Beast did finish 2 1/4 lengths ahead of third-place finisher Royalamerican (9-1).

Western Man (30-1), Way Beyond (53-1), Big Apple Patrick (17-1), Essential Time (15-1), Jets Rio (81-1), Time for Music (6-1), Supreme Good (7-1) and Spice Runner (6-1) finished fourth through 11th in that order. My Dream Zapper was scratched.

Express Kid’s winning time was 1:38.99 on the fast dirt surface after early fractions of 23.54, 47.58, 1:12.83 and 1:25.84. He paid $71.00, $21.00 and $14.20, and he keyed some big payoffs in the exotic wagers. The largest came in the 10-cent superfecta, which paid $1,168.73.

Express Kid was bred by Richard Barton Enterprises, which asked $12,000 for the colt in his first sale. He earned $180,000 for his victory in the Springboard and sent his lifetime record to 5: 3-1-0. His bankroll went from $56,902 to $236,902.

This was the first victory in the Springboard Mile for all the connections of Express Kid.