BY MICHAEL COMPTON
Daniel Alonso’s Ford Roadster registered a determined victory in his career debut on Sunday, April 19, winning a four-and-half-furlong maiden special weight at Gulfstream Park, becoming the first winner for Ocala Stud’s Roadster.
“It looks like the Roadsters can run,” Alonso said of the first-crop sire.
In addition to the $39,000 winner’s check, Ford Roadster earns a $25,000 Florida Sire Racing Incentive paid directly by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association. Alonso will receive $20,000 and breeder Juvenal Lopez Diaz gets $5,000 because Ford Roadster is eligible for the $1 million Florida Sire Racing Incentive program. Ford Roadster is the second Florida-bred in two juvenile races at Gulfstream this year to earn the FSRI money.
Ford Roadster broke alertly and tracked prohibitive favorite Strike, also a son of Roadster, through the early stages. Ford Roadster ranged up outside of Strike around the turn and edged away in deep stretch to score by a half-length at the finish. Strike finished second, completing an exacta for the freshman sire. Florida-breds Liberty Rings and Fridaynightclub were third and fourth respectively followed by Racing Menace and Florida-bred What a Deal. Medieval was scratched.
“He had been training well and he seemed to be a healthy horse,’ Alonso said. “We’re glad he got it done.”
Trained by Ramon Minguet, Ford Roadster paid $25.20 to win.
Ford Roadster is produced from the winning Florida-bred mare She Nailed It, by Corfu.
Roadster, a son of perennial leading sire Quality Road, captured the 2019 Santa Anita Derby (Grade 1), defeating stablemate Game Winner—the previous year’s Eclipse Award-winning 2-Year-Old Male Champion. In addition to his signature win, Roadster finished second in the Malibu (G1) to Omaha Beach, was second in the San Carlos (G2), and was runner-up to Grade 1 winner Mucho Gusto in the Affirmed (G3).
Out of the stakes-winning and stakes-producing Silver Ghost mare Ghost Dancing, Roadster is a half-brother to Grade 1-winner and Keeneland track-record setter Ascend. Roadster was sold by his breeder—Arthur Hancock III’s Stone Farm—at the Keeneland September Sale for $525,000.
Roadster’s first 2-year-olds in the auction ring this year at OBS have commanded up to $625,000, $425,000, etc. He stands this season for $7,500 S&N. For more information, contact David O’Farrell at (352) 237-2171, or visit www.OcalaStud.com.
Return to the April 21 issue of Wire to Wire
