Bodexpress

After a dull performance in his career debut, Bodexpress set the pace in his second start and faded late in a runner-up finish. He ran fourth in his third start before an eye-catching second on Feb. 16 at Gulfstream Park in a seven-eighths of a mile race prompted trainer Gustavo Delgado to try the bay Bodemeister colt against stakes competition.

Making his stakes debut in the Grade 1, $1 million Xpressbet Florida Derby, Bodexpress ran second to unbeaten Maximum Security to earn 40 points toward qualifying for the 2019 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, very likely enough to guarantee him a spot in the first jewel of the Triple Crown. 

Bodexpress was checked on the final turn in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve and faded to finish 13th. His bad fortune continued in the Preakness Stakes, where he reared coming out of the starting gate and unseated jockey John Velazquez. Both horse and rider were unhurt.

During fall 2019, Bodexpress resurfaced at Gulfstream Park West and broke his maiden by three lengths. He followed that up with a 6 3/4-length win at the same track before closing out his 3-year-old season with a third-place effort in the Grade 3 Harlan's Holiday Stakes at Gulfstream Park. 

Bodexpress started his 4-year-old season with a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes and then hit the board in three of his next four starts heading into the fall. He returned to Gulfstream Park West in October and romped by 11 1/4 lengths in a 1 1/16-mile allowance, and then Delgado moved him back up the class ladder in a very tough assigment: the Nov. 28 Grade 1 Clark Stakes Presented by Norton Healthcare at Churchill Downs.

With Rafael Bejarano aboard for the first time, Bodexpress put it all together and tallied his first win away from his home track in the Clark, holding off Grade 1 winner Code of Honor by a length for a career-defining victory.