Kentucky Derby contender Bolt d’Oro is named for world-record-setting sprinter Usain Bolt, who was adding to his gold-medal tally at the 2016 Rio Olympics the month the colt was purchased by owner and trainer Mick Ruis at Saratoga. The colt has lived up to the moniker by emerging as one of the most brilliant members of his crop. His Beyer Speed Figure of 103 in winning the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes last fall was the top number of the year for any juvenile, and his two races this year both earned triple-digit figures. Bolt d’Oro finished second to McKinzie in the Grade 2 San Felipe at Santa Anita in March, but was promoted to first when the stewards took down McKinzie. Bolt d’Oro finished second to Kentucky Derby favorite Justify April 7 in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby. But his name also hearkens back through more than eight decades of racing history to his speedy 10th dam, who, at the time of her retirement, Daily Racing Form wrote, “raced herself into the position of being one of the finest of her sex ever to sport silks.” :: ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays, and analysis Hall of Fame filly Myrtlewood, who set or equaled multiple track records, was honored as both the champion sprinter and champion older female of 1936. She went on to become a foundation mare for Spendthrift Farm, which fittingly has a major stake in Bolt d’Oro’s breeding rights and eventually will stand him in Kentucky. The colt will carry Spendthrift owner B. Wayne Hughes’s colors in the Kentucky Derby, a gesture of thanks from Ruis for the support. “Much of the breeding success of Spendthrift Farm can be credited to Myrtlewood and her daughters,” Brownell Combs, who bred and raced Myrtlewood, said in “Great Breeders and Their Methods: Leslie Combs II and Spendthrift Farm,” by Mary Marshall. “We had Myrtlewood daughters everywhere. Even if they couldn’t run, you could guarantee that they would throw something that could. They were great broodmares and the absolute essence of our breeding program. The Myrtlewood daughters were like gold; everybody wanted one.” Myrtlewood, by Blue Larkspur, won twice from four starts as a juvenile for trainer Ray Kindred. The following year, she set an American record for six furlongs at 1:09 2/5. Meanwhile, the older gelding Clang equaled the American record for seven furlongs and set a track record going 6 1/2. A match race between the two was arranged, and Myrtlewood defeated Clang by a nose going six furlongs at Hawthorne. Another match was arranged less than three weeks later in Cincinnati. Clang needed to lower Myrtlewood’s American record by a fifth of a second to edge the filly by a nose. :: Get both the Kentucky Derby and Oaks Clocker Reports for just $19.95! In her championship season as a 4-year-old, Myrtlewood won seven stakes races. She continued to flash her speed in sprints, establishing a track record in winning the Cadillac Handicap going six furlongs at Detroit. However, she also stretched out that speed, equaling a track record going a mile in the Lakeside Handicap at Washington Park and setting a track record in Detroit’s Motor City Handicap, in which she defeated Seabiscuit, at 1 1/16 miles. Myrtlewood closed her career on a six-race win streak, including both the six-furlong Keen Handicap and the 1 1/16-mile Ashland Stakes at the inaugural Keeneland meeting and a victory over Miss Merriment in a match race at Keeneland. Myrtlewood closed her career with a record of 22-15-4-2. Pundits considered it odd that she would retire as a sound 4-year-old rather than racing on, but Brownell Combs “wishes her to go into the stud not burned out,” DRF wrote. “He believes the chances are in his favor that he can raise a champion from her.” Myrtlewood produced just five winners before dying in 1950, but those included 1942 Kentucky Oaks winner Miss Dogwood and champion Durazna. Her daughters and granddaughters continued to produce top-quality runners, with the female family responsible for 1971 Kentucky Oaks winner Silent Beauty and champions Myrtle Charm, Typecast, and Tudor Queen. More recently, Miss Dogwood was the great-great-granddam of Canadian Broodmare of the Year Amelia Bearhart, whose champion son Chief Bearhart won the 1997 Breeders’ Cup Turf. :: DRF BREEDING LIVE: Real-time coverage of breeding and sales While Myrtlewood never produced a standout son, her daughters ensured her name would live on in the stallion ranks as well. Via her first foal, Crepe Myrtle, Myrtlewood was the fifth dam of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, whose champions included 1992 Horse of the Year A.P. Indy, who went on to become an influential stallion, with offshoots including record-setting grandson Tapit. Miss Dogwood was the great-granddam of Mr. Prospector, multiple times a leading sire and broodmare sire. These two have been among the dominant lines in American breeding: Of the last 15 Triple Crown races, 13 were won by a tail-male descendant of either Mr. Prospector or Seattle Slew. That includes 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, part of the branch launched by Mr. Prospector’s grandson Unbridled. Bolt d’Oro, who traces to Myrtlewood through Durazna’s descendants, will seek to become the next standout for Spendthrift, originated in 1937 by Leslie Combs II. But the crash of the Thoroughbred market in the late 1980s and early 1990s hit Spendthrift hard. After Combs died in 1990, Ted Taylor purchased the main tract of Spendthrift at a court-ordered bankruptcy auction in 1994; Bruce Kline and partners then bought it in 2000. Hughes, who has owned racehorses since the 1970s, purchased the farm in 2004 and has revitalized it with a robust stallion roster, including regional outreach and creative breeding programs. Spendthrift programs include Share the Upside, which ultimately results in a lifetime breeding right for those who support a young stallion early, and Breed Secure, which delays stud-fee payment until and only if the resulting foal is sold at a profit. For now though, there’s plenty of racing to look forward to for Bolt d’Oro – starting Saturday. “I think he’s going to be very difficult for these horses to handle,” Hughes said. “He came off a very, very difficult race – he could have bounced [in the Santa Anita Derby]. I look forward to seeing what’s going to happen here. “He is an awesome, awesome horse.”