From Kentuckyderby.com and Remington Park Publicity
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (Dec. 20, 2025) – California-bred longshot Express Kid is suddenly on the Kentucky Derby trail after scoring a stunning win in Saturday night’s $300,000 Remington Springboard Mile Stakes for 2-year-olds at Remington Park.
With the win, Express Kid earned 10 qualifying points for the 2026 Kentucky Derby.
Express Kid, a $2,000 yearling purchase, is by Bodexpress, out of the Street Sense mare Sensationalize, was bred by Richard Barton Enterprises, is owned by Steve Haahr and trained by Wade Rarick.
He has three wins in five starts, earnings of $236,902 and was coming off a win in a Nov. 6 allowance. Ridden by Jose Alvarez, Express Kid ran the mile in 1:38.99 and won by 6 1/4 lengths as the second-longest shot in a field of 11 at odds of 34-1.
The Wade Rarick trainee was overlooked at odds of 34.50-1 in the grand finale of the Remington Park season. Although Express Kid won his latest start, a Nov. 6 allowance on the Remington turf, he had been beaten in both prior stakes attempts. He was runner-up in the Prairie Meadows Freshman S. in August and subsequently a distant sixth in the Clever Trevor S., a local stepping stone to the Springboard Mile.
Even 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 this summer. 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 on Jan. 3. It concludes with the Grade 1 $1,500,000 Arkansas Derby on March 28.
There was a logical reason Express Kid went off at the second-longest odds of any winners of the Springboard Mile. The longest winner was Texas Bling in 2012, who paid $259.60 to win. Express Kid returned $71 to win to his backers.
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 $100,000 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 $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,” 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.
If you think the sale world was indifferent to him, check out the jockeys that have ridden him. In his five starts, Express Kid has had five different riders. This was the first time Alvarez had been on him in an official race. Walter De La Cruz won with him in the grass race here on Nov. 6.
When Alvarez 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, who thought enough of 4-5 odds-on undefeated favorite Arctic Beast, to come to Remington Park with this horse as his only mount of the night. The 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).
The remaining Springboard order of finish was Western Man (30-1) fourth, Way Beyond (53-1) fifth, Big Apple Patrick (17-1) sixth, Essential Time (15-1) seventh, Jets Rio (81-1) eighth, Time for Music (6-1) ninth, Supreme Good (7-1) 10th, and Spice Runner (6-1) 11th. The original field of 12 became 11 when My Dream Zapper scratched.
Express Kid set fractions of :23.54 for the first quarter-mile, :47.58 for the half-mile, 1:12.83 for three-quarters of a mile and 1:25.84 for seven furlongs. His winning time was 1:38.99 on the fast surface.
Other than his $71 payoff to win, Express Kid paid $21 to place and $14.20 to show. The winner keyed some big payoffs in the exotic wagers. The biggest came in the 10-cent superfecta which paid $1,168.73 for a dime bet.
Express Kid had plenty to prove against the leading contenders who shipped in, especially Mike Maker’s 9-10 favorite Arctic Beast, Steve Asmussen’s Road to the Kentucky Derby veteran Spice Runner, and his Asmussen stablemate, Time for Music.
Express Kid rewarded his backers with $71 – the second-highest payout in Springboard Mile history, according to track announcer Dale Day. The biggest upset came courtesy of Texas Bling, who sparked a $259.60 mutuel in the 2012 edition.
Arctic Beast garnered five points in his first try around two turns, and outside of New York-bred company. Oklahoma-breds Royalamerican (three points) and Western Man (two points) did their state proud by placing third and fourth, respectively.
Way Beyond, the longshot of Steve Asmussen’s trio at 53-1, outperformed expectations in fifth (one point). Big Apple Patrick finished sixth, trailed by Essential Time, Jets Rio, Time for Music, Supreme Good, and Spice Runner. My Dream Zapper was scratched.
Express Kid is by Bodexpress, who became an instant celebrity by unseating his rider at the start of the 2019 Preakness (G1) and completing the race on his own. Bodexpress capped his career with a victory in the 2020 Clark (G1) at Churchill Downs, but he’ll always be remembered for his Preakness adventure.
Express Kid’s dam (mother), Sensationalize, is by 2007 Kentucky Derby champion Street Sense. Sensationalize is herself out of multiple stakes victress and Grade 2-placed Stormy West. This is the further family of European sprint supremo Dayjur, who famously jumped the shadow in the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1).
Bred by Richard Barton Enterprises in California, Express Kid failed to sell for a $12,000 bid at the Fasig-Tipton Fall Yearlings Sale in Pomona in his home state. He turned up in the Arizona Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association Fall Mixed Sale, where Haahr got him for $2,000. The rest is history, still in the making.