Unbeaten Bolt d'Oro Takes Aim at Juvenile, Championship

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Unbeaten Bolt d'Oro Takes Aim at Juvenile, Championship
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Photo: Benoit Photo
Bolt d'Oro and jockey Corey Nakatani win the FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita Park

While he has started only three times, undefeated Bolt d'Oro brings an impressive list of accomplishments into the $2 million Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) Nov. 4 at Del Mar.

Class and speed? Bolt d'Oro already has notched a pair of grade 1 victories in his young career and the 119 Equibase Speed Figure earned in his 7 3/4-length romp in the FrontRunner Stakes (G1) is the top dirt number earned by any runner in the field.

A win over the surface? Check—in the Sept. 4 Del Mar Futurity (G1).

A win at the Juvenile distance? Check—last time out in the 1 1/16-mile FrontRunner at Santa Anita Park.

Versatility? Check—in his three wins, Ruis Racing's Bolt d'Oro has dueled on the lead early, rallied from eighth, and stalked from just off the pace.

With a third straight grade 1 score in the Juvenile, where he figures to be a big favorite, Bolt d'Oro would lock up a divisional championship.

"Our goal was this race and the Breeders' Cup, and then give him a chance to grow up," said owner/trainer Mick Ruis after the FrontRunner win. Ruis campaigns Bolt d'Oro with his wife Wendy. "Hopefully what dreams are made of is what this guy might be able to get us to."

Bolt d'Oro's jockey is 10-time Breeders' Cup winner Corey Nakatani, who last year considered retiring and now finds himself on a top 2-year-old.

Awaiting Bolt d'Oro are a pair of experienced grade 1 winners in Mr. Amore Stable's Firenze Fire, who rallied from 10th to win the Champagne Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park in his most recent effort; and Albaugh Family Stables' Free Drop Billy, also a late runner who raced in fifth early in the Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (G1) before he rolled to a four-length score in the 1 1/16-mile test at Keeneland.

Trained by Jason Servis, Firenze Fire has won three of his four starts and bounced back from a fourth-place finish in the Hopeful Stakes (G1) to post a half-length win over Good Magic in the Champagne. Trained by Chad Brown, maiden Good Magic also is entered in the Juvenile.

Three-time Breeders' Cup winner Dale Romans has earned placings in the past two editions of the Juvenile but hopes to secure his first win in the race with Free Drop Billy, who has finished first or second in all four of his races and delivered his best effort when stretched to two turns for the Breeders' Futurity.

Besides Bolt d'Oro, the field's other unbeaten horse is Carolyn Wilson's The Tabulator, who won his maiden debut on the Polytrack at Arlington International Racecourse and followed with stakes wins on dirt in the Prairie Gold Juvenile Stakes at Prairie Meadows and the Iroquois Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs.

"I've been in (Breeders' Cup races) the past few years, but I have more confidence in (The Tabulator) than I had with the previous starters," said trainer Larry Rivelli, who sent out Cocked and Loaded to a fifth-place finish in the 2015 Juvenile and Wellabled to a 10th-place run in last year's Juvenile Turf (G1T).


Entries: Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1)

Del Mar, Saturday, November 04, 2017, Race 10

  • Grade I
  • 1 1/16m
  • Dirt
  • $2,000,000
  • 2 yo Colts and Geldings
  • 3:58 PM (local)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L
1 1U S Navy Flag (KY) Ryan L. Moore 122 Aidan P. O'Brien 8/1
2 2Solomini (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Flavien Prat 122 Bob Baffert 6/1
3 3Firenze Fire (FL) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 122 Jason Servis 6/1
4 4Givemeaminit (LA) Javier Castellano 122 Dallas Stewart 20/1
5 5Free Drop Billy (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Robby Albarado 122 Dale L. Romans 5/1
6 6Good Magic (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Jose L. Ortiz 122 Chad C. Brown 8/1
7 7The Tabulator (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Jose Valdivia, Jr. 122 Larry Rivelli 20/1
8 8Bahamian (MD)Keeneland Sales Graduate Mario Gutierrez 122 Simon Callaghan 30/1
9 9Hazit (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate John R. Velazquez 122 Todd A. Pletcher 20/1
10 10Golden Dragon (KY) Evin A. Roman 122 Mikhail Yanakov 30/1
11 11Bolt d'Oro (KY) Corey S. Nakatani 122 Mick Ruis 9/5
12 12Hollywood Star (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Joel Rosario 122 Dale L. Romans 15/1