ARCADIA, Calif. (Sept. 30, 2017) – Corey Nakatani might finally have himself a Kentucky Derby winner and owner/trainer Mick Ruis appears to have struck gold as they teamed for victory in Saturday’s Grade I, $300,000 FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita with Bolt d’Oro.  A Kentucky-bred colt by Medaglia d’Oro, he steamed to a 7 ¾ lengths win while getting a mile and a sixteenth in 1:43.54–which was more than three seconds faster than undefeated 2-year-old filly Moonshine Memories, who took the Grade I Chandelier Stakes one race earlier.

Fresh off victory going seven furlongs in the Grade I Del Mar Futurity Sept. 4, Bolt d’Oro settled nicely in second position going into the Club House turn and pulled Nakatani alongside pacesetter Take the One O One approaching the quarter pole and opened up through the lane like a colt with a limitless future.

Unbeaten now in three starts, Bolt d’Oro was off at 4-5 in a field of nine and paid $3.80, $2.80 and $2.20.

Owned by Ruis Racing, LLC, Bolt d’Oro, in his first try around two turns, picked up $180,000 for the win, increasing his earnings to $396,000.

Ridden by Flavien Prat and trained by Bob Baffert, Solomini proved second best, finishing 2 ½ lengths in front of Take the One O One.  Off at 3-1, Solomini paid $3.80 and $3.00.

Ridden by Joe Talamo, Take the One O One, a 72-1 longshot, finished 3 ½ lengths in front of Ayacara and paid $7.00 to show.

Fractions on the race were 23.17, 47.23, 1:11.88 and 1:36.96.