“When I go to a sale, I’m looking for a decent horse that can make money, especially a Maryland-bred,” longtime trainer Henry Walters said the other day. “I mean, you hope, but you’re not looking there saying, ‘This is a stake horse.’”

That’s especially true, of course, when you’re fishing in the shallower end of the waters, as Walters and owner Scott Groh (AJ Will Win Stables LLC) did when they paid all of $5,000 to pick up a son of Barbados as the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale.

And yet that gelding, Barbadian Runner, had been stakes-placed twice prior to the running of the Jan. 25 Spectacular Bid at Laurel Park. He won that day, running down Crab Daddy late to win by a head, earning his second career win and putting him past $137,000 in earnings.

It was also Walters’ first stakes win since 2004.

“If you go to the sale and you’ve got deep pockets, you can probably find a stake horse,” the trainer said. “But we don’t look for that.”

Still, it’s pretty nice when it does, as he says, “fall in your lap.” And Barbadian Runner will be back at it Saturday in the one-mile, $100,000 Miracle Wood for three-year-olds at Laurel Park. He is the 7-2 third choice on the morning line, and with morning line favorite Studlydoright expected to scratch, he’ll be in an even better position.

All of which is a surprising outcome for a $5,000 yearling.

“I think we bid on several horses that went for more money than we expected,” Walters said of that 2023 sale. “This horse was on the short list. We didn’t get what we were looking for, so we went back and looked at a few that we had marked. He got a thumbs-up, and he went in the range that we were willing to pay, and so we ended up with him.”

He made his debut in a $45,000 waiver maiden claimer last June, finishing fourth in an effort Walters described as “very decent.” He graduated by just over two lengths in his second start, defeating next-out winner Little Bit Risky, among others.

“He just ran huge when he broke his maiden,” Walters said. “He galloped out really strong, and I knew then he’d probably be an allowance type. But you never know.”

He finished second in a couple of allowance contests and then was a troubled sixth in the Maryland Million Nursery before registering three straight third-place finishes, including in the Maryland Juvenile and then the Heft Stakes.

“He’s never run a bad race in his life,” Walters said. “And he’s had like three or four races where he’s had a lot of trouble. I know some he caused himself, but there was always room for improvement there.”

Some of that self-inflicted trouble involved lugging in, a bad habit that Walters said the runner “never does… in the morning.”

To combat it, he changed the horse’s bit and added blinkers. The result was a horse who ran a more professional race when winning the Spectacular Bid.

“He’s as game as they come,” rider Forest Boyce said after the Spectacular Bid. “The last couple of times, he lugged in real bad. Today, a little bit but not as much as before, and I think that really made a big difference. He ran a little straighter, so it feels like he’s maturing a little bit.”

Walters’ initial sense is that Barbadian Runner is more likely than not to be a sprinter. Barbados, his sire, was a Grade 3 winner sprinting, and the better of Barbadian Runner’s two siblings, Sue Loves Barbados, has done his best work going short. The Miracle Wood is a one-turn mile.

“A one-turn mile doesn’t look like it would be out of his element,” Walters said. “Stretching him out around two turns, that’s something I’ll think about later. But where he is right now, I think this is a good time to test to see if he can go a little further. And the one-turn mile is basically a long sprint, right?”

Boyce will be back aboard for the fourth consecutive race. Barbadian Runner is one of three entered coming out of the Spectacular Bid; also set to line up are the place horse Crab Daddy and Sacred Thunder, who was a troubled third.

He also is one of three entering off a win. Both Pay Billy (6-1) and All the Hardways (15-1) bested allowance company last out.

As for getting a useful horse, Barbadian Runner has been that in spades. In fact, in just nine starts, he’s become Walters’ fifth-richest trainee, and a win Saturday would zoom him up to second.

“I’m happy winning a $5,000 claiming race,” the trainer said. “Stakes are just the cherry on top.”