Hot Rod Honey gives Roadster first stakes winner in Sharp Susan Stakes

Hot Rod Honey took command in the stretch at Gulfstream Park and turned the $96,500 Sharp Susan Stakes into a clear statement, drawing off to win by 4 1/4 lengths in the 5 1/2-furlong dirt sprint for 2-year-old fillies. The dark bay/brown filly finished in 1:06.24 after chasing opening fractions of :22.17 and :45.90, then leaving Colombina two lengths behind in second, with Elegante Miz third and favored Boots fourth.

The victory gave Roadster his first stakes winner and added the kind of early black-type result that can change the way a freshman sire is viewed in a hurry. Roadster stood for $7,500 at Ocala Stud in 2026, and the July 3 Sharp Susan came at a moment when his early juvenile runners were already under close scrutiny. By the updated July 3 sire list, Roadster had 62 runners, 12 winners and 3 black-type stakes winners, putting him among the most productive first-crop sires in the country and Florida’s leading freshman sire through July 2.

Hot Rod Honey is now 2-for-2 and rewarded backers with a $6 return on a $2 win bet. She is by Roadster out of the unraced Unified mare Go Together and was bred in Florida by the Estate of Brereton C. Jones. Carlos A. David trains the filly for owners Troy Johnson, Wendell Yates and Robert Fritts, and Leonel Reyes rode her in the Sharp Susan.

Roadster’s own résumé still carries the kind of Grade 1 credibility breeders look for in a young stallion. The son of Quality Road out of Ghost Dancing, by Silver Ghost, won the 2019 Santa Anita Derby and also was second in the Malibu Stakes and third in the Del Mar Futurity before entering stud in 2023 at Ocala Stud in Ocala, Florida. That profile helped make him a watch-list horse in the first place; Hot Rod Honey’s decisive stakes win now gives him a filly with a résumé strong enough to shape where his juveniles land next on the summer stakes path.

Hot Rod Honey’s path to the winner’s circle also traces back to the sales ring. She brought $27,000 as a weanling at the 2024 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, bought from the Airdrie Stud consignment by Weston Thoroughbreds, agent for Troy Johnson. After the Sharp Susan, that modest purchase has already produced Roadster’s first stakes winner and a filly with the speed to stay relevant as the juvenile season deepens.