Mary's Boy Bolt hopes to follow in sire's footsteps in Futurity

The presence of the longshot Mary’s Boy Bolt in Sunday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity could be a unique manner of keeping a top race in the family.

Mary’s Boy Bolt is by Bolt d’Oro, who won the race in 2017. Bolt d’Oro was trained by Mick Ruis, who recently returned to training after a four-year absence.

Ruis’s daughter Shelbe trained the family’s stable in recent years, but stepped away in the spring after the birth of a daughter. Shelbe’s husband, Antonio Garcia, trained the stable for several months until Mick Ruis resumed training last month.

Garcia continues to train a stable that includes several runners owned by Paul and Zillah Reddam.

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Mary’s Boy Bolt will be an outsider in a small field in the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity at seven furlongs, but should have no trouble with the distance. He won a slowly-run maiden race at a mile in a 50-1 upset on Aug. 26, overcoming a wide trip and trouble through the stretch.

“We beat a good field, but it was a slow time,” Mick Ruis said. “We know he can get the seven furlongs. He’s improving and improving.”

The Ruis family bred Mary’s Boy Bolt, who is out of Mary Edna. Mick Ruis purchased Mary Edna for $825,000 as a yearling in 2017. The filly did not race. Mary’s Boy Bolt is her second foal to race and second winner.

Aside from the Del Mar Futurity, Mary’s Boy Bolt will be pointed for the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes for 2-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Oct. 7.

“The horse is bred to go longer,” Mick Ruis said.

It will be a weekend of longshots in big stakes for Ruis Racing. On Saturday, they start Pretty Layla, named for Shelbe’s daughter, in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante for 2-year-old fillies at seven furlongs.

The Del Mar Futurity is the leading race on Sunday’s closing day of the track’s summer meeting. The list of candidates is led by Prince of Monaco, the undefeated winner of the Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes at six furlongs on Aug. 13 by a convincing 4 1/4 lengths.

Prince of Monaco is trained by Bob Baffert, who has won a record 16 runnings of the Del Mar Futurity, including the last two.

Mick Ruis, 62, said on Thursday that he plans to have as many as 20 horses at Santa Anita this fall. Aside from training, he is focused on the development of 500 homes in Montana, where his family has a ranch.

At Santa Anita, Ruis will be assisted by Jose DeLima, a former trainer in Southern California who is working with Ruis in Kentucky. Ruis said he recently sold his Kentucky farm to California owner Tom Stull and that he is likely to purchase another property in that state in a “year or a year and a half,” he said.

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