Bolt d'Oro getting back on track after pulling muscle

ARCADIA, Calif. – Bolt d’Oro will resume galloping this week after recovering from a pulled muscle that interrupted his training and ultimately postponed his 2018 debut.

Veterinarians gave owner-trainer Mick Ruis a green light to resume Bolt d’Oro’s training program after a nuclear scan on the colt showed no irregularities.

A two-time Grade 1 winner, third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and an early favorite for the 2018 Kentucky Derby, Bolt d’Oro originally was scheduled for his first start of the season Feb. 10 in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes at Santa Anita. He will not be ready.

The colt’s workout schedule was put on hold after he showed signs of discomfort leading to his first comeback workout, which was scheduled for Dec. 31. Days before, he came up “crabby,” Ruis said.

“All of the sudden, he was a little bit sore on the back end,” Ruis said. “I had just been jogging him, galloped him, and was getting ready to work him. Then four days before, he was a little crabby in the back.”

The setback caught Ruis by surprise. “I didn’t push too hard on him,” he said. “I’m like, ‘What is wrong?’ That’s why I canceled the work.”

Ruis suspects the setback occurred at night.

“I think he got cast one evening,” Ruis said. “I have a 24-hour night [watchman], and he never said he got stuck, but you can get cast a little bit.”

Although Ruis suspected the colt had sustained nothing more than a minor muscle pull, he was not certain until the colt underwent a nuclear scan on Wednesday. Late afternoon, Ruis received word Bolt d’Oro was good to go.

“The doctor sent me the X-rays and told me everything is good, everything’s fine,” Ruis said. “All systems forward now. I don’t think we will go in the San Vicente.”

Bolt d’Oro merely jogged the past week, and by Wednesday he had signaled he was over the minor setback.

“He jogged really good the last two days,” Ruis said late Wednesday.

The timing for Bolt d’Oro’s first comeback workout has not been determined. It will not be this weekend.

“I’ll probably wait,” Ruis said. “I want to get some really good gallops in him.”

Bolt d’Oro won his first three starts as a 2-year-old, including the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity and Grade 1 FrontRunner at Santa Anita. He earned the highest Beyer Figure by any 2-year-old last year in the FrontRunner – a 103 winning the mile and a sixteenth race by more than seven lengths.

In his final start of the season Nov. 4 at Del Mar in the BC Juvenile, Bolt d'Oro was compromised by a wide trip and finished 5 1/4 lengths behind winner Good Magic.

Assuming that Bolt d’Oro resumes training without another hiccup, he will have plenty of options for a comeback. Those include the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 10 at Santa Anita, and Grade 2 Rebel Stakes on March 17 at Oaklawn Park.