BY SANTA ANITA PRESS OFFICE (EDITED)

ARCADIA, CA—A light work tab Thursday included the return of Grade 1 winning Florida-bred Speed Boat Beach for trainer Bob Baffert. Off since winning the 2023 Malibu (G1) at Santa Anita, the 2023 Florida-bred Horse of the Year drilled three furlongs on the main track in :36.40. It was his first work since Sept. 21.

Owned by Michael Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, Speed Boat Beach has a career record of four wins with a second in seven starts with $498,000 in earnings. He was a two-time stakes winner on turf as a 2-year-old before switching to dirt for three starts last year.

As a 3-year-old, the Bayern colt was second to Dr. Schivel in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship and fourth in the Grade 1 Qatar Racing Breeders’ Cup Sprint won by Elite Power at Santa Anita before winning the Malibu by a length-and-a-half under Flavien Prat.

 

Bred in Florida by Richard Heysek of Williston in the name of his Caperlane Farm, Speed Boat Beach is out of Sophia Mia, by Pioneerof the Nile.

He is a two-time graduate of Ocala Breeders’ Sales, having first sold for $12,000 to Rubin M. Sanchez at the 2021 October Year Sale where he was consignmed by Stuart Morris. Sanchez then consigned him in the name of his Really and Truly Thoroughbreds to the 2022 OBS March Sale where Three Amigo bought him for $200,000.

Return to the January 16 issue of Wire to Wire