Roadster as good as advertised in debut Del Mar win

The colt’s legend has only grown since, at the beginning of this month, TMZ of all outlets asked trainer Bob Baffert to name his next American Pharoah or Justify type of horse.

Roadster started living up to the hype Sunday.

In his debut at Del Mar, going in a maiden special weight event at six furlongs, the Quality Road colt — a $525,000 purchase by Speedway Stable — showed he has plenty of room to grow but still made easy work of nine rivals at the seaside oval.

First, the 4/5 favorite was reluctant to load. That happens on debut. Once he walked in, jockey Mike Smith remounted, and they were away from the inside post.

Then he leaned on talent, rallying strongly on the outside and to a victory on Smith, who usually isn’t seen on this type of colt until after he wins a race.

The Hall of Famer had little work to do in the final two furlongs, sitting still on Roadster past the wire to clock 6/8 of a mile in 1:11.07 and win by 4 1/4 lengths.

Now, the colt appears a shoe-in to try the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity — a race won by American Pharoah in 2014 — toward the end of the meet. And beyond that, he's one we could be talking about on the 2019 Kentucky Derby trail.