Ruis eager to test Bolt d'Oro in Del Mar Futurity

DEL MAR, Calif. – There’s a crowd atop the list of hopefuls for Monday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity.

Aside from the first four finishers of the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes on Aug. 12 – Run Away, Dia de Pago, Fleetwood and Master Ruler – the candidates include Bolt d’Oro, Gracida, Soul Streit, Tatters to Riches, and Zatter, all maiden race winners here this summer.

Owner and trainer Mick Ruis is eager to see where Bolt d’Oro rates in the division since winning a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs by 2 1/4 lengths as the 4-5 favorite on Aug. 5.

“I haven’t pressured the horse at all yet,” Ruis said on Friday.

Ruis paid $630,000 for Bolt d’Oro at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sale. He thinks Bolt d’Oro can win the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity at seven furlongs, but will be better suited to races around two turns, notably the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Sept. 30.

“This isn’t the last race I want to run in,” Ruis said. “I’m looking forward to the FrontRunner.”

As for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile here at 1 1/16 miles on Nov. 4, Ruis is more cautious.

“We’ll see Monday,” he said.

The Del Mar Futurity is the top race on the final day of the summer meeting.

Ruis, 56, trains his own horses. Last summer, his daughter Shelbe trained them, while Mick was a hands-on owner with his wife, Wendy. This summer, Shelbe Ruis is his assistant.

In 2016, the Ruis family won the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante with Union Strike and finished third in the Del Mar Futurity with Midnight Pleasure. Monday, Midnight Pleasure is scheduled to run in an optional claimer.

Bolt d’Oro, who is by Medaglia d’Oro, is one of two winners at the summer meeting for Ruis.

This year, Union Strike has not duplicated her 2016 form, though she did win the Santa Paula Stakes at Santa Anita in April. Union Strike was fifth in the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park on June 10 and is nearing a return to full training for a winter comeback, Mick Ruis said.