Paradise Equine Farm and Bradley and Sharon Kleven’s Express Kid may look to punch his ticket to the Kentucky Derby in the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino on April 4, at Aqueduct Racetrack.

“That’s one of our best options. We’ve been targeting that,” trainer Justin Evans said. “I need to speak to the owners as they’ve also been talking about the Louisiana Derby, but I’d really like to bring him over there – that’s a race I’ve always respected and as a kid growing up in the game, the Wood Memorial is huge. I think the race might fit us really well.”

The nine-furlong Wood Memorial offers 100-50-25-15-10 qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby and headlines a stacked card that includes the Grade 2, $300,000 Carter presented by NYRA Bets, the Grade 3, $200,000 Gazelle – a 100-50-25-15-10 qualifier for the Kentucky Oaks, the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff, the Listed $150,000 Excelsior and the Listed $150,000 Plenty of Grace to kick off turf stakes action for the year in New York.

Express Kid made his first five career starts for owner Steve Haahr and trainer Wade Rarick, winning three times topped by a frontrunning score in the Listed Springboard Mile on December 20 around two turns at Remington Park where he bested multiple stakes-winning New York-bred Arctic Beast by 6 1/4-lengths.

Express Kid’s Springboard Mile score was flattered when Arctic Beast returned to win the state-bred Damon Runyon here and third-place Royalamerican exited to post an allowance win ahead of a start in the Welder on Tuesday at Will Rogers Downs.

The Bodexpress colt was purchased for $800,000 from the Fasig-Tipton Digital Sale by Brad Kleven and transferred to Evans. The California-bred Express Kid, a $12,000 RNA at the Fasig-Tipton California Fall Yearling Sale, was bought for $2,000 at the Arizona Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association Fall Mixed Sale.

“He’s a great-looking horse. He’s very athletic looking,” Evans said. “The connections that had him before did a fantastic job with him race-wise and the horse came to me in great flesh and looked amazing. He’s a push-button horse and everything you go to do with him, he does really well and seems like he wants more.”

Express Kid went to post as the even-money favorite in the Listed Sunland Derby on February 15 at Sunland Park and showed the way from the inside post in a field of six through splits of 23.07 seconds, 46.40 and 1:10.07 under pressure from Pavlovian. Express Kid and Pavlovian battled gamely the length of the lane with the latter putting a nose in front at the wire to stop the clock in a final time of 1:42.22 for 1 1/16-miles.

Evans said he was pleased by the performance from Express Kid, who earned a career-best 87 Beyer Speed Figure in the runner-up effort – a two-point improvement on the figure earned for his Springboard Mile score – despite missing training leading into the race.

“That was a heartbreaker the other day in the Sunland Derby,” Evans said. “We were a little up against it as we had weather we never get out here – a snowstorm which you very rarely get in El Paso, but it hammered us and we were on the shelf and missed training for eight or nine days. That really hurt us and caused us to miss a work plus the day-to-day training we missed. To go through that and lose the Sunland Derby by a nose was heartbreaking.”

Express Kid earned 10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points in the Sunland Derby, matching the points he earned for winning the Springboard Mile. He currently sits 18th on the leaderboard with 20 points.

Express Kid worked back five-eighths in 1:00.34 on February 28 at Sunland Park.

“The horse bounced out of it really good and had a good work the other day,” Evans said. “I plan on breezing him back on Tuesday and then talk to the owners to pin down our gameplan, but the Wood is one of our first choices.”

Express Kid has worn blinkers in each of his six outings, including a debut win sprinting 4 1/2-furlongs in July at Canterbury Park, a runner-up effort in the Prairie Meadows Freshman in August and a turf allowance score in November at Remington Park where he stalked and pounced to a head score.

Evans noted that Express Kid worked without blinkers in his most recent breeze.

“We’ve talked about maybe taking the blinkers off,” Evans said. “It’s something we’re looking at now that he’s grown and matured a little bit. It might be time to take them off and see if it will open him up a little bit.”

Express Kid is out of the winning Street Sense mare Sensationalize. His second dam is the Grade 2-placed multiple stakes-winner Stormy West, while his third dam is the multiple stakes-winner Storm Beauty.

Evans noted that Express Kid may be joined on the potential trip to the Empire State with the Klevens’ New York-bred sophomore colt Black Volt, who ran a half-length second last out in the state-bred Bertram F. Bongard on September 20 here.

“I’d like to find a conditioned race for his comeback,” Evans said. “He ran second as a 2-year-old in the New York-bred stake out there. He’s just about ready to run.”

Also possible for the trek is Leslie Amestoy, Pierre Jean Amestoy, Jr. and Roger Beasley’s Stonehenge, who posted back-to-back allowance scores at Sunland last month.

“He’s ran some huge times over here; he broke his non-two and non-three his last two races and he’s just been crushing these horses out here and putting up some big numbers,” Evans said of the 4-year-old Gormley colt.

source: NYRA