Roadster a ‘superstar on the rise’ ahead of Del Mar Futurity

As Triple Crown  winner Justify’s racing career ended, Mike Smith hopped right aboard another promising colt in Bob Baffert's care, Roadster.

Owned by Speedway Racing Stable, Roadster made his career debut July 29 with Smith in the irons. The pair sat off the pace in the six-furlong race before pulling ahead to win by 4 1/2 lengths in 1:11.07.

Now with Del Mar’s closing day around the corner, Smith is gearing up to ride the colt in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity.

“We’re just over the moon about him,” Smith said this week in an interview with KXNO’s Horse Racing Talk. “He’s just done everything that you’ve asked of him to do in the a.m. He just opens the eyes in the morning, to watch him work. Some of the stuff he does comes very natural and easy to him.”

Come Labor Day, Roadster will be tested against the West Coast's other juvenile buzz colt, the runaway winner of the Grade 2 Best Pal.

“We’ll get the chance to see him run against another superstar that’s been running around here called Instagrand that Jerry Hollendorfer trains,” Smith said told the Horse Racing Talk hosts.

The Futurity has launched West Coast 2-year-olds into big careers, including 2015 and 2016 Kentucky Derby winners American Pharoah and Nyquist. Baffert has won the race 13 times. But if Roadster prevails, it will give Smith his first victory in the race.

Run at seven furlongs, the Futurity will stretch both Roadster and Instagrand out an extra furlong from their last race. Baffert has lengthened Roadster's recent works accordingly, including a six-furlong drill last Thursday in 1:12.60.

“Roadster – we’ll see as they start to stretch out a little bit – but, if he can run around two turns like he’s been doing, like he did in his debut and how he’s been training,” Smith said, “he’s a superstar on the rise.”