BY BROCK SHERIDAN

Speed Boat Beach, the Florida-bred Horse of the Year in 2023, makes his first start since winning the Grade 1 Malibu in December of that year in Thursday’s $200,000 St. Matthews overnight stakes at Churchill Downs. The 5-year-old son of Bayern trained by Bob Baffert is the 5-2 morning line favorite in the six-furlong contest for ten 4-year-olds and older.

Owned by Michael Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, Speed Boat Beach started three times during in 2023 when also honored as the Florida-bred Champion Sprinter.

He was second, just a head shy of Dr. Schivel in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship and fourth, after leading into the stretch of the $1.8 million Qatar Racing Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) won by Elite Power at Santa Anita.

A winner of four of seven career starts with one second, Speed Boat Beach also counts among his victories the Cecil B. DeMille (G3) going a mile on the turf at Del Mar and the $102,000 Speak Easy (Listed) going five furlongs on the turf at Santa Anita, both in 2022.

An earner of $498,000, Speed Boat Beach is out of Sophia Mia, by Pioneer of the Nile and was bred in Florida by Richard Heysek’s Caperlane Farm.

He will be ridden from post three by Flavien Prat.

Speed Boat Beach is a two-time graduate of Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company. He was purchased by his current owners under their Three Amigos banner for $200,000 at the 2022 March Sale where he was consigned by Rubin Sanchez’s Really and Truly Thoroughbreds. Sanchez purchased him out Stuart Morris consignment for $12,000 at the 2021 OBS October Yearling Sale.
(Speed Boat Beach’s Under Tack Video / Yearling Video)

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