Six Speed targets Woody Stephens or Met Mile after Derby flop

Six Speed is headed to Saratoga with a sharper question than simply where he runs next: what kind of colt he really is. After finishing 13th in the Kentucky Derby, the Grade 2 UAE Derby runner-up is being pointed toward either the Grade 1 Woody Stephens or the Grade 1 Met Mile for new trainer George Weaver, and the choice will say plenty about how the barn sees his future.

The son of Not This Time, out of the Medaglia d’Oro mare Browse, arrived in this position by traveling a different road than most Derby horses. Bred in Kentucky by KatieRich Farms, Six Speed opened the year with a five-length win in the UAE 2000 Guineas at Meydan, then ran second in the UAE Derby before his trip to Churchill Downs. That resume shows speed, class and enough stamina to stay relevant at the highest level, but the Derby result left Weaver with a fork in the road rather than a straight line forward.

Both options sit on the same marquee Saturday at Saratoga Race Course. The New York Racing Association has the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival scheduled for Wednesday, June 3, through Sunday, June 7, 2026, with the Woody Stephens set for Saturday, June 6, and the Met Mile also on Saturday, June 6. That makes the decision unusually revealing: one race is a 7-furlong dirt sprint for 3-year-old males, the other is a 1-mile dirt test for 3-year-olds and up.

Choosing the Woody Stephens would signal that Weaver believes Six Speed’s best weapon is his natural pace and acceleration. It would also keep him against his own age group, where the class test is still severe but the distance asks less of his stamina. A move there would frame him as a colt whose next step is about sharpening, not stretching, and it would put him in a race where a fast early tempo can turn raw speed into a winning edge.

The Met Mile would tell a different story. That race brings older horses into the picture and asks a 3-year-old to prove he can carry speed a full mile against a deeper, more mature group. For a colt coming off the Derby, it is the bolder class call and the cleaner sign that Weaver thinks Six Speed can settle into a one-turn route rather than live as a pure sprinter.

Weaver’s involvement adds another layer. The New York-based trainer earned his first Breeders’ Cup win in 2025 with Cy Fair, and he has long handled Saratoga stakes company well. Horse racing databases already list Six Speed as probable or possible for the Woody Stephens and among the possible names for the Met Mile, underscoring that this is an active placement decision, not a placeholder.

However Weaver lands, the next start will shape Six Speed’s campaign beyond Saratoga. The question is no longer whether he belongs in graded company. It is whether the horse that flashed brilliance in Dubai and faltered in Louisville is best deployed as a sprinter with class or a miler with room to grow.