By Art Wilson
Correspondent
@sham73 on Twitter
I have a sure winner on Breeders’ Cup weekend at Del Mar. Can’t lose. Gonna dispose of his opponents like yesterday’s bad headache.
OK, I can hear you snickering from here. I can imagine the wise cracks.
The guy who wrote that War Emblem was going to need an oxygen tank at the quarter pole in the 2002 Kentucky Derby is telling me who’s going to win a Breeders’ Cup race before pre-entries are even taken?
The man who astutely told me to eliminate Mine That Bird before even sitting down to handicap the 2009 Derby is telling me who to bet before post positions are even drawn?
Yeah, right.
OK, don’t listen to me. Leave him off your exotics. Pretend he’s not even running.
That’s what I’d do if I were you. Heck, I’d have probably told you to bet Goliath, that David was a hopeless longshot. I’d have shrugged off that little ol’ iceberg the Titanic hit. My longshot bet of the year would have been Custer.
I’m the first to admit that before picking California Chrome, American Pharoah and Nyquist to win the Derby in successive years, there was nothing rosy about my Derby selections after Sunday Silence in 1989. Abysmal is not a strong enough word.
But even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then, and I think I’ve found mine.
Ladies and gentlemen, Bolt d’Oro is going to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 4 at Del Mar.
He’s going to be the favorite, and rightfully so. He’s head and shoulders above any 2-year-old I’ve seen run this year. Hands down.
If he reads this, owner-trainer Mick Ruis is probably throwing up his arms in disgust. I can see him now. The guy who couldn’t tell you where the sun sets (it’s in the west, right?) is picking his horse to win the most important 2-year-old race of the year.
Actually, Ruis can take it. He’s as confident in Bolt d’Oro as I am. Probably even moreso.
He wouldn’t tell reporters how much he bet after Bolt d’Oro won the Del Mar Futurity, only that “I’d show you my tickets but I don’t want the IRS to get me.”
Later, he told us, “I like betting.”
Ruis knows Bolt d’Oro could be something special. He’s by one of today’s top sires, Medaglia d’Oro, so he can run all day. If he can remain sound and transfer his 2-year-old form to his 3-year-old season, something that’s not a given, he could indeed follow in the footsteps of his half-sister, Songbird, and become a monster on the race track.
But don’t ask Ruis if he’s got an early case of Derby fever.
“I don’t want to jinx myself,” he said.
So I guess I’m doing it for him.
One of the main reasons why I like Bolt d’Oro so much is not only because of the way he’s run, but the Juvenile is the race Ruis has been pointing toward. Victories in the Del Mar Futurity and FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita were all just preludes to something much bigger.
“(Those were) the steppingstone we want to use to go to the longer races,” Ruis said. “He’s out of a Medaglia d’Oro-A.P. Indy mare (Globe Trot). Wait until January and see what this horse is going to look like when he starts growing up.”
Ruis says Bolt d’Oro’s got the temperament to handle most things, something that will come in handy if he’s fortunate enough to make it to Churchill Downs on May 5 and is confronted with the biggest crowd of people he’s seen to date.
“He’s such a good-minded horse,” Ruis said. “Mellow. In his maiden race, I thought he was almost too tranquil, but he bit me in the back before the race and I said, “Oh, at least I know he’s ready to go.’ I almost wanted to sacrifice another bite, but I said no.”
The 56-year-old Ruis, back for another go at the sport after a brief hiatus, is understandably enthused about his colt’s future.
“It’s super exciting for us,” said Ruis, whose son, Mick Jr., is a former jockey and daughter, Shelbe, is a licensed trainer. “This is why we do it. Everybody wants to try to get into the Derby or one of the (Triple Crown) classics and I truly believe if we have luck and the horse stays sound, which he has been, that we could be right there with the other horses. This horse is only going to improve.”
Enough so that they won’t beat him Nov. 4.
