Photo:

Remington Park / Dustin Orona Photography

Speed King will get another shot around two turns when he
starts Jan. 25 at Oaklawn in the Grade 3, $1 million Southwest Stakes for
3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles, trainer Ron Moquett said Friday.

The Southwest, raised to a record seven figures after
previously being worth $800,000, is Oaklawn’s second of four Kentucky Derby
qualifying races. The series begins with the $250,000 Smarty Jones Stakes at 1
1/16 miles Jan. 4.

Click here for Oaklawn entries and results.

Speed King, in his second start and his two-turn debut,
finished second, beaten by a half-length by Coal Battle in the $300,000
Remington Springboard Mile on Dec. 13.

“We understand there’s some good horses coming for the
Southwest, but we believe we’ve got a good horse,” Moquett said.

Speed King, from the first crop of Grade 1-winning sprinter
Volatile, was a front-running, 2 1/4-length, debut winner Nov. 1 at Churchill
Downs. He went off 22-1 and covered six furlongs in 1:10.25 to generate an
Equibase Speed Rating of 93. He got at 95 for the Springboard Mile, which was
run last Friday night.

After grabbing the early lead under Rafael Bejarano as the
2-1 favorite, Speed King was shadowed up the backstretch and around the second
turn by Dr Ruben M. He shook clear in the upper stretch, but he couldn’t hold
off Coal Battle on the outside approaching the wire.

The final time over a fast track was 1:39.25. Speed King
took the 12-horse field through a 47.76-second half-mile and six furlongs in
1:12.21.

“If you look at the card, he was the only horse that ran
well, that fought throughout the entire race,” Moquett said. “Even in the other
stakes races, everybody won from the off the pace. He went up there and set
some really fast fractions and fought down the lane. Congratulations to the
horse that won, but I believe that we spent a little too much time staring at
the screen (infield video board) on the inside, looking at that instead of
running.”

Moquett said he doesn’t anticipate any equipment tweaks for
the Southwest, which he won in 2015 with Far Right.

“These screens are farther away, and we’re not running at
night,” Moquett said, referring to Oaklawn’s infield video boards.

Moquett trains Speed King for one of his most treasured
clients, Ted Bowman’s Triton Thoroughbreds. Moquett and Bowman teamed to win
the $750,000 Stephen Foster Handicap (G1) in 2006 at Churchill Downs with Seek
Gold, a 91-1 long shot.

Bowman, who lives in Hot Springs, Ark., bought Speed King
for $100,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sale spring auction of 2-year-olds in
training.

Speed King collected five Kentucky Derby qualifying points
for his runner-up finish in the Springboard Mile. The Southwest will offer 20-10-6-4-2
points to the top five finishers.

Sandman, a sharp Dec. 13 allowance winner at Oaklawn, also
is pointing for the Southwest, trainer Mark Casse said. Sandman has four
Kentucky Derby qualifying points.

Mystik Dan, the 2024 Southwest winner, captured the Kentucky
Derby.