BY AVALYN HUNTER
Finding a stallion with both early speed to promise good juvenile winners and the pedigree and performance to suggest the ability to get classy two-turn horses is not easy. Fortunately for Florida breeders, Ocala Stud has such a horse in Roadster. Now entering his third year at stud, Roadster combines a sire line with proven punch, a Grade 1-producing family, Grade 1 performance and solid conformation.
Roadster is by four-time Grade 1-winner Quality Road, who turned in one of the most brilliant performances seen in Florida when he broke his own track record in the 2010 Donn Handicap (G1). Speeding nine furlongs in 1:47.49, he earned a Equibase speed figure of 130, putting him in the same stratospheric range as Flightline (131), California Chrome (132) and Gun Runner (132).
Seventh on the 2024 American general sire list as of Dec. 13, Quality Road has five previous top-10 finishes. The leading son at stud for 2004 American champion sire Elusive Quality, he hails from the Gone West branch of the Mr. Prospector sire line, also the source of top sires Speightstown and Mr. Greeley, and his son City of Light is the sire of 2023 champion 2-year-old male (G1) Fierceness (a multiple G1 winner in 2024) and 2024 Hollywood Derby (G1)-winner Formidable Man.
On the distaff side, Roadster is out of stakes-winner Ghost Dancing (by Silver Ghost) and is a half-brother to 2017 Woodford Reserve Manhattan (G1)-winner Ascend (by Candy Ride). Ghost Dancing, in turn, is out of the Red Ransom mare Ransom Dance, who is from the immediate family of 2009 Prioress (G1)-winner Cat Moves (by Tale of the Cat) and 2014 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1)-winner Hootenanny (by Quality Road). The family history suggests that Roadster should do well with mares returning Storm Cat and/or Seattle Slew, both absent from his own pedigree.
A $525,000 Keeneland September yearling, Roadster earned “Rising Star” status from Thoroughbred Daily News following his first-out maiden win. He then ran third in the Del Mar Futurity (G1). As a 3-year-old, he won an $80,000 optional claiming at Santa Anita before delivering a powerful stretch run in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) to down 2018 champion juvenile Game Winner by a half-length. Following that win, he added five more stakes placings and retired with career earnings of $901,500.
“Roadster is an athletic, correct, medium-sized horse much like Quality Road,” Ocala Stud’s David O’Farrell said. “He also has a great mind and is very professional. He’s stamping his foals with similar characteristics—they all seem very athletic and with good bone, and they look a lot like him. I feel they’ll sell well both as yearlings and as 2-year-olds in training. As a precocious horse who could carry his speed over a route, we feel that Roadster has everything Florida breeders could want.”
Roadster will stand the 2025 season at Ocala Stud for $7,500 live foal, stands and nurses.
