The catalogue features 69 horses of racing age, a graded stakes winner off the track, multiple stakes performers, and breeding stock with current updates. These include the broodmare Star of Shanghai (Shanghai Bobby) (hip 23), a half-sister to 'TDN Rising Star' Mindframe (Constitution), who debuted with a 13-length victory at Gulfstream Park last Saturday. Two-year olds and yearlings are also on offer.

Both the Lothenbach and Ruis entries are consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency and will be sold without reserve.

The Lothenbach offerings are horses of racing age, while the Ruis entries consist of horses of racing age, racing/broodmare prospects and yearlings.

To view the entire catalogue, visit digital.fasigtipton.com.

The post Bidding Opens on Fasig-Tipton April Digital Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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This past December, Ruis released a statement claiming legal victory in the matter and, earlier this month, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ordered the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) to disqualify Justify and pay $300,000 to Ruis while also redistributing the purse. During his racing career, Justify was campaigned by a partnership consisting China Horse Club International Ltd., Head of Plains Partners, Starlight Racing, and Winstar Farm.

According to DRF, a board of California stewards issued a ruling Saturday ordering Justify's ownership to relinquish the $585,000 in first-place prize money. Trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Mike Smith must also return their portion of the purse, which is typically 10% of the winnings. The money must be forfeited by Apr. 29, with all trophies also returned.

Justify, who is now a successful sire standing at Coolmore America, will also see his race record adjusted from six-for-six to five-for-six. California stewards Ron Church, John Herbuveaux, and Kim Sawyer signed Saturday's order.

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Dick Downey of the Blood-Horse was first to report the settlement on Thursday, citing details made public in court filings.

Neither the settlement nor the underlying lawsuit involved any direct claims against 'TDN Rising Star' Justify's then-ownership group (China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners, Starlight Racing, and WinStar Farm) or the colt's trainer, Bob Baffert.

Although, as Downey pointed out in the Blood-Horse, “Presumably they retain the right to appeal the stewards' ruling” and the purse redistribution.

By winning the Santa Anita Derby, the undefeated Justify was able to earn necessary qualifying points to enter the GI Kentucky Derby. He then swept the remaining two Triple Crown races, the GI Preakness S. and GI Belmont S, but was retired from racing six weeks later after developing a left front ankle filling.

It wasn't until 15 months after Justify's Triple Crown romp that a September 2019 bombshell story in the New York Times revealed that Justify had tested positive for scopolamine after he won the Santa Anita Derby, and that the result had been kept hidden from the public.

The Times further reported that CHRB officials arranged to handle Justify's positive “differently than usual” by holding an August 2018 executive session hearing during which CHRB members voted unanimously not to disqualify Justify or to sanction Baffert because the positive test was the result of contamination linked to jimson weed.

The stewards subsequently claimed they had no jurisdiction on the matter as it had already been decided, a decision with which the CHRB later concurred.

Ruis then began what would turn out to be a years-long legal quest to have the result of the race overturned with Bolt d'Oro declared the winner, alleging that the CHRB failed to follow its own rules when it decided not to pursue penalties after Justify's positive test.

Carlo Fisco, one of Ruis's attorneys, told TDN via email Thursday evening that the settlement also will quell a separate civil case pending against the CHRB that sought monetary damages.

“We have settled our monetary claims against the CHRB, which now has the additional duty to recover and redistribute the purse to the rightful owners including our client,” Fisco wrote. “It was never about the money. I'm hoping we can all move on and put the actions in 2018 of a few bad actors behind us. It's all been settled save for the purse redistribution.”

According to the Mar. 5 court document that outlines the settlement, “within five days of [the CHRB] being served with the signed Judgment, the Board of Stewards will enter a new order disqualifying the horse Justify and redistributing the purse pursuant to Rule 1859.5 and ordering that all purse monies earned or awarded be returned to the Paymaster of Purses at Santa Anita within 30 days of their order. If the purse is not redistributed within 30 days, [the] CHRB shall use its best efforts pursuant to its rules [in] ensuring that the [court ruling] is upheld.”

The settlement filing states that the CHRB's obligations “are expected to be fully performed by CHRB using its best efforts as expeditiously as possible.”

The settlement also stipulates that “Nothing contained in this Agreement shall be construed as an admission of liability, any wrongdoing, or any violation of law.”

The post CHRB Settles with Ruis in ’18 Santa Anita Derby Dispute Involving Justify DQ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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At issue was a report in the New York Times that revealed that Justify had tested positive for the substance scopolamine in the Santa Anita Derby. At the time, scopolamine was on a list of substances that, when found in a horses's system, required that the horse be disqualified. According to reports and Ruis's lawyer, the CHRB acted on recommendations from then-executive director Rick Baedeker and equine medical director Dr. Rick Arthur. It was their call that Justify should not be disqualified because the positive test was the result of contamination linked to jimson weed.

Had the New York Times not broken the story some 17 months after the Santa Anita Derby, probably, no one would have ever known that the horse had tested positive. Once the story was brought to light, Ruis went to work and hired attorney Darrell Vienna. Ruis stood to make $400,000, the difference between first and second-place money in the $1-million Santa Anita Derby.

There are, however, a few remaining questions:

1) Is this the final word or may there be still more appeals and fights in the courts?

“There is the potential for appeal,” Vienna said. “My understanding of the judge's order is that the stewards must now issue an order to disqualify Justify. There's the potential that the stewards' ruling can't be appealed. That's kind of confusing because they're under the order of the court. Now, is there going to be an appeal to the judgment of the Superior Court judge. They could appeal to the stewards, the court, one or the other or both. Hopefully, there will be no more appeals and we can just move on.”

2) All of the qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby that Justify picked up came from the Santa Anita Derby. Had the California stewards disqualified him from that race and did so in a timely manner, he would not have been eligible to run in the Kentucky Derby and obviously wouldn't have won the Triple Crown. Do the owners of the horses who finished behind Justify in the Triple Crown races have a case and could, say, Good Magic (Curlin) eventually be declared the winner of the 2018 Derby?

“I don't think so,” Vienna said. “I am aware of a case in California in which there was the appeal of a winner of a race who had subsequently been disqualified from a qualifying race that got him into the race he won. In that case, the California courts held that the horse's eligibility was determined at time of nomination and participation. Under those circumstances, I don't believe there will be any change in the order of the Kentucky Derby or the other Triple Crown races.”

A spokesperson for Churchill Downs told Horseracing Nation that the track has no plans to alter the result of the 2018 Derby.

3) How did this ever become the mess that it did? And why didn't the CHRB follow its own rules?

Vienna maintains that if the California Horse Racing Board followed it own rules the case would have been cut and dried and dealt with promptly. He maintains that the rules were simple and not open to interpretation. He says that any horse that tested positive for a prohibited substance had to be disqualified.

“It's all very simple,” he said. “All they had to do was follow their own rules. There was never any real determination of what happened after the closed session. The closed session lacked finality and lacked all the indices of true decision making.  There was no notice to the involved parties. There were no witnesses. All you had was Dr. Rick Arthur making the argument that scopolamine was the result of contamination. The problem is the rules in California at the time called for the disqualification of a horse who was positive for a prohibited substance that was in classes 2 through 3, which scopolamine was. They could have correctly absolved Mr. Baffert or any one else of any responsibility and still under law be required to disqualify the horse. That was the gist of our case. That's all we ever asked for. Our case was based solely on the fact that there was prohibited medication in that horse's system and, as a result of that, the rules called for the horse to be disqualified. I don't think it was very confusing at all.”

4) The process dragged on for some 4 1/2 years and if not for the New York Times report, it may never have been known that Justify tested plosive for the substance. Was the CHRB trying to sweep this under the rug?

“I think that is the case,” Vienna said. “In one executive session, they were provided with one side of the story and they wanted it to go away. There is a process in California law that provides for dismissal of a complaint, but if you look at the history of the statute in California it really applies to charges against a trainer and not the dismissal of a disqualification. That would conflict with another statute in California that says that no horse can benefit if they are carrying a degree of a substance in his system.

“Mick, like all of us is worn out, but he is pleased. This happened in 2018 and no one knew anything about it until 2019. That's a tremendously long journey for something. It could have been settled right away if horse racing board simply decided to follow their owns rules.”

Can Full-Brothers Win the Derby Back to Back?

With his win in the GII Remsen S., Dornoch (Good Magic) is on his way to the GI Kentucky Derby, where will try to pull off something that has never been done. He is a full-bother to GI 2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage and siblings, either full-brothers or half-brothers, have never teamed up to win the Derby.

To show just how difficult that feat is, take Secretariat. His dam, Somethingroyal, produced four foals who made it to the races after Secretariat. They combined to win three races with total earnings of $38,241.

There have been a couple of dams who produced more than one win in a Triple Crown races. Thanks to research done by Randy Moss of NBC Sports, we know that the dam Leisure produced two Preakness winners in Royal Tourist (1908) and Holiday (1914). Better Than Honour was the dam of 2006 GI Belmont S. winner Jazil (Seeking the Gold) and 2007 winner Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy).

As for Dornoch, a lot will have to go right for him to win the 2024 Derby, but at this point in the game, he's far ahead of where Mage was at the same point. The Remsen was Dornoch's fourth career start and with the Remsen, he has added a graded stakes win to his record. Mage didn't start until Jan. 28 of this 3-year-old year and had not won a stakes race coming into the Kentucky Derby.

Noble Indy Makes It Home

Remember the story of Noble Indy (Take Charge Indy), the winner of the 2018 GII Louisiana Derby? He never ran back to that race and wound up being sent to Puerto Rico, where racing can often lead to the worst possible outcomes. Well, Fred Hart, who owned the dam of Noble Indy, Noble Maz (Storm Boot) was determined to bring him back home. Working together with Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare Inc., he has made that happen and Noble Indy landed at Old Friends last week. It's worth noting that Mike Repole and WinStar Farms, who were two of his owners during his prime racing days, foot the costs required to transport the horse back to the U.S. It's good to see owners accept the responsibilities that come with providing a good life for their horses after their careers are over.

The post The Week in Review: Takeaways from Justify-Scopolamine Verdict, and Other Thoughts appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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After it was revealed in a report that Justify had tested positive for scopolamine, Ruis began that quest to have the result of the race overturned with Bolt d'Oro declared the winner. Ruis alleged that the CHRB failed to follow its own rules when it decided not to pursue penalties after Justify's positive test. The CHRB acted on recommendations from then-executive director Rick Baedeker and equine medical director Dr. Rick Arthur. It was their call that Justify should not be disqualified because the positive test was the result of contamination linked to jimson weed.

The lack of disqualification at the time was especially significant as the qualifying 'Road to the Kentucky Derby' points Justify earned from his win in the Santa Anita Derby–his first career stakes start–made him eligible for the GI Kentucky Derby a month later. He not only won the Kentucky Derby, but went on to win the Triple Crown as well. Justify, a 'TDN Rising Star' conditioned by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, was raced at that time for the partnership of China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners LLC, Starlight Racing, and WinStar Farm, while Bolt d'Oro was trained for Ruis Racing LLC by Mick Ruis.

The statement, in its entirety, follows:

“Ruis Racing LLC announced today a significant legal victory against the California Horse Racing Board. Represented by attorneys Carlo Fisco and Darrell Vienna, Ruis Racing LLC obtained an order from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff directing the California Horse Racing Board Stewards to set aside their December 9, 2020 decision and issue a new ruling disqualifying Justify from the 2018 Santa Anita Derby.

“The Steward had originally ruled that they lacked jurisdiction to conduct a Disqualification Hearing in this matter. The Court disagreed and stated in its decision that there is “no reason for remand” as there is “no doubt” the Stewards would have disqualified Justify if they understood that they had the authority to do so.

“Today's decision supports the longstanding California Horse Racing Board rule that any horse racing with a prohibited substance in its system must be disqualified and the purse redistributed.”

TDN was able to option a copy of the ruling, which appears here. The following is found in the ruling's conclusion:

“As the Stewards have already determined what the result would be if they could reach the issue of disqualification on the evidence before them, the court will issue a writ directing the Stewards to set aside their December 9, 2020 decision and Remand Decision and to make a new order disqualifying Justify. Based on the twice-stated clear position of the Stewards, the court finds there is “no reason for remand” of the matter as there is “no real doubt” the Stewards would have disqualified Justify if they understood that Respondent provided them with such authority when Respondent filed the complaint against the Justify Parties.”

According to CHRB spokesperson Mike Marten, the agency has not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling, and there was no further comment on a “pending legal matter.”

Attorney Darrell Vienna, representing Ruis, said that Justify's connections theoretically could also appeal the ruling, “even though this suit was simply between Mick Ruis, under Ruis Racing LLC, versus the California Horse Racing Board.”

Ruis also has a separate civil case pending against the CHRB seeking monetary damages. That case is also filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

“They don't run in parallel. I think if we had lost this case it would have been very problematic for the civil case,” said Vienna.

“We don't have a direct claim against Justify's people,” added Vienna. “The awards and what we want has to come from the CHRB. If they want to chase down Justify's owners for the funds, they can do that. We're not going to do that.”

A footnote in the judge's ruling criticizes the CHRB for entering into a settlement agreement with Ruis, for a stewards purse DQ hearing on the Santa Anita Derby. The stewards subsequently claimed they had no jurisdiction on the matter as it had already been decided–a decision the board then concurred with.

“It strains credulity that a state agency would enter into a settlement agreement providing the other party with illusory relief. That is, why would Respondent settle litigation with Petitioner knowing its complaint could not (as a legal matter) be adjudicated. To the extent the agency did mislead Petitioner, equitable estoppel would likely preclude the agency from depriving the other party with the benefit of its bargain,” the ruling states.

According to Vienna, “we were enticed to enter into an agreement that was not going to be honored.”

Because of the qualifying points system in place for the Kentucky Derby, Justify's berth in that year's contest was incumbent upon his running first or second in the Santa Anita Derby.

When asked if the ruling puts into question Justify's Kentucky Derby win, therefore, Vienna pointed to a similar case he had previously litigated “in which a horse's eligibility was valid until it was disproven.”

“At the time of the running of the Derby, Justify was eligible based on the then-pending decision,” said Vienna. “Subsequently today, that decision was overturned. But at the time he participated in the Derby he had, for all intents and purposes, achieved the right to run in the Derby.”

Vienna added, “if the board had done what they should have done in the first place, he would have been disqualified, and that issue of whether he had enough points for the Derby would have been decided back then.”

Said Vienna, “There's no question that Justify's a very good horse and a great sire, and that Bolt d'Oro's a good horse and a great sire.”

He added, “I'd like to see everybody get back to racing and not fighting.”

The post Court Orders Disqualification of Justify’s Santa Anita Derby Win appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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The first thing to stress is that it really shouldn't matter which of the stallions involved happens to bank the critical extra cents to claim the crown. That won't be how the marketing teams of their respective farms are viewing things, naturally, but any sensible breeder will consider the state of play on Dec. 31 as wholly random, given that a single maiden winner at Oaklawn or Fair Grounds could conceivably suffice to alter the standings 24 hours either side.

Far more importantly, all three have met historic standards that would in many years have secured them each the laurels. Through Wednesday, at $2,402,870, Bolt d'Oro had maintained the advantage he retrieved when Instant Coffee laid down a marker over the Derby course in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. at Churchill last Saturday. That could prove a pivotal moment, as he was chased home by Curly Jack–a son of Good Magic, who similarly leads the pursuit of Bolt d'Oro on $2,282,082. Breathing down their necks, meanwhile, is Justify with $2,231,749.

Though all three would have been left gasping behind the record-breaking Gun Runner last year, Bolt d'Oro is about to nudge past 2020 champion Nyquist. In 2019, his current tally would have split American Pharoah and Constitution. And all three of the present protagonists have already comfortably exceeded each of the preceding champions until you reach Uncle Mo in 2015.

Each, moreover, has established a core of quality that measures up pretty creditably even to Gun Runner. Justify's six stakes and four graded stakes winners are a match for the Three Chimneys freak last year; Bolt d'Oro and Good Magic both have five and three. (Nyquist had just two stakes winners, but both won Grade I races!) In terms of overall stakes action, however, it is Bolt d'Oro who stands alone with 14 black-type operators at a remarkable 19.2% of starters. Gun Runner had eight at 12.7%.

As colleague Sid Fernando recently remarked, the rookies also have a strong presence in the overall table of juvenile sires. Into Mischief has a clear lead but presumptive champion Forte's sire Violence is only narrowly holding second from the contending trio. As Sid noted, with fellow freshmen Sharp Azteca seventh and Army Mule eighth, this table confirms how debut books are nowadays loaded to meet an ever-narrowing window of commercial opportunity.

Sid has since examined how Justify can be expected to keep consolidating, while I had already marked Good Magic's achievement as first to a Grade I success through Blazing Sevens in the Champagne S. It feels like high time, then, that “The Third Man” also received some attention.

Auspiciously, though his own sophomore career eventually tailed off into anti-climax, Bolt d'Oro actually feels no less entitled than his rivals–first and second in the GI Kentucky Derby, with Bolt d'Oro down the field (made only one subsequent start)–to produce horses that keep progressing at three.

How could he not, when his parents are respectively by El Prado (Ire) and A.P. Indy? His half-brother, moreover, is that admirable creature Global Campaign (Curlin), himself now at stud with WinStar after breaking into the elite late in his 4-year-old campaign. Bolt d'Oro offers all the requisite size, stretch and stride, too.

Bolt d'Oro romped in the 2017 FrontRunner | Benoit

With that in mind, he was a remarkably accomplished juvenile: he broke his maiden in a Del Mar sprint before winning two Grade Is in California, notably the FrontRunner S. by nearly eight lengths for a molten 103 Beyer. That ensured he started at short odds for a GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile staged in his backyard, but he was ridden via Nantucket, wide all the way, as Good Magic famously broke his maiden (the pair divided by the FrontRunner runner-up).

On his resumption Bolt d'Oro was awarded the GII San Felipe S. after taking a bump from head winner McKinzie (Street Sense); and is actually still seeking an equivalent promotion in the courts after Justify beat him three lengths in the GI Santa Anita Derby. According to the last I read on this–it's been hard to keep up!–Mick Ruis has a hearing in March to keep alive his complaint against Justify's retention of this prize, despite a drug overage.

One way or another, there has never been a dull moment with this horse. Trained by his owner for most of his career, Bolt d'Oro duly got plenty of attention on the Derby trail. Ruis, who retained a major interest in his deal with Spendthrift, bought a 330-acre farm outside Lexington to accommodate the mares that would support a colt he had bought for $630,000 as a Saratoga yearling. (An instructive price, considering that Global Campaign was then an unnamed weanling.) The young stallion gained less welcome headlines with his aggression, at one stage proving such a handful that help was sought from an equine behaviorist. In his first book, Bolt d'Oro was dignified by a visit from the dam of Rachel Alexandra–who was, of course, by his own sire Medaglia d'Oro–and the resulting colt made $1.4 million at Saratoga. (And actually made his debut, seemingly in need of it, half an hour after Instant Coffee came up the same track on Saturday.) The following spring, Spendthrift themselves sent Bolt d'Oro farm champion Beholder (Henny Hughes). And now he finds himself in this extraordinary fresh battle with two old racetrack rivals.

Medaglia d'Oro | Darley photo

Even Spendthrift couldn't launch Bolt d'Oro on quite the same scale as Ashford did Justify and Mendelssohn, who corralled 252 mares apiece. But he certainly saw predictable business at $25,000, with 214 mares in Kentucky followed by a shuttle stint in Australia. (In this connection, breeders in this day and age should always remember also to sort the freshman table by earnings-per-starter. On those terms Good Magic is doing best of the title protagonists–but not as well as Awesome Slew! And Oscar Performance deserves a mention here, too.)

Bolt d'Oro entertained another 146 mares in 2020, but could clearly have had more but for the prudent management of his boisterous conduct at the time. Given a businesslike trim to $15,000 last year–in line with his farm's wider approach to the uncertainties of the pandemic market–he maintained business at 153 mares. Interestingly, however, both his fee ($20,000) and his book (174) moved back up this spring after a warm reception for his first yearlings.

Though he had taken as many as 114 to market, he found a home for 97 of them at $155,097. That average put him behind only Justify, who obviously had to turn round a much bigger opening fee ($150,000) and did so at $373,083; and City of Light, who made such a stellar start at $337,698. Just behind came Mendelssohn and Good Magic, at $153,611 and $151,708, respectively.

This year, remarkably, Bolt d'Oro has bucked the usual trend and actually advanced his average with his second crop of yearlings. He processed 54 of 61 offered at $172,027, still third but closing the gap on Justify ($304,692) and City of Light ($237,047) and edging away from Good Magic ($131,760) and Mendelssohn ($98,969).

In between, moreover, he had been credited with the most expensive filly by a freshman sire at the 2-year-old sales when Spendthrift gave $1.2 million for an $85,000 yearling pinhook from Tom McCrocklin at the Gulfstream Sale, in the process assisting their own sire to a juvenile average of $239,549–surpassed only by Justify.

Bolt d'Oro's $1.2-million filly out of Rich Love this spring | Fasig-Tipton

Everything that has ensued on the racetrack, then, only maintains a wider momentum for Bolt d'Oro, whose fee for 2023 has been set at $35,000.

One of the most pleasing aspects of his success is its contribution to the tragically abbreviated legacy of his dam, who died after delivering only her third foal. He turned out to be Global Campaign; the first was Grade II-placed, multiple stakes winner Sonic Mule (Distorted Humor). Seldom has the expression “three strikes and out” been so poignantly apt.

Globe Trot, sold by her family's curators at Claiborne as a yearling, was out of triple graded stakes winner Trip (Lord At War {Arg}), herself half-sister to the stakes-winning dam of Zensational (Unbridled's Song)–the legendary Jimmy Crupi pinhook ($20,000 to $700,000) who won three Grade I sprints as a sophomore.

Zensational helps to make this one of the faster lines tracing to the matriarch Myrtlewood. Globe Trot and Trip, though both by stamina influences, operated around a mile; the next dam, a stakes winner by Forty Niner, was a sprinter. So, too, was Sonic Mule. Zensational's half-sister produced Cutting Humor (First Samurai), who set a track record in the GIII Sunland Park Derby. And Globe Trot herself was a half-sister to the dam of Recruiting Ready (Algorithms), who earned over $800,000 round a single turn (notably in the GIII Gulfstream Park Sprint S.). Even Bolt d'Oro was himself dropped in distance for what proved his final start in the GI Met Mile.

So there's evidently a nice balance here, complementing the sturdy influences behind Globe Trot: like her own sire A.P. Indy, her damsire Lord At War is an obviously wholesome distaff brand. The broodmare sire of Pioneerof the Nile and War Emblem was a guarantor of splendidly durable stock, especially on turf.

As such, Lord At War adds an interesting flavor to the sire line now being extended by Bolt d'Oro. The flexible influence of Medaglia d'Oro is well established, and the first two graded stakes winners by Bolt d'Oro himself both arrived in switching to grass: Major Dude in the GII Pilgrim S., and Boppy O in the GIII With Anticipation S. Bolt d'Oro has also had a $50,000 yearling, Bold Discovery, Group-placed in Ireland on his second start; plus a rather more expensive export, From Dusk ($900,000 OBS March 2-year-old), beaten a length in a field of 18 for a Group 2 in Tokyo.

Instant Coffee won Churchill's KYJC this past Saturday | Coady

But the versatility of Medaglia d'Oro also embraces rather more precocity than has sometimes seemed the case. Forte, don't forget, is another grandson featuring early on the Triple Crown trail; and now we can throw Instant Coffee into the mix for Bolt d'Oro after Owen's Leap (Sanford S.) and Agency (GIII Best Pal S.) both finished second in summer dirt sprints.

If only with a fairly formal credit as breeder, Instant Coffee represents a residue of Kevin Plank's attempt to revive Sagamore Farm. His dam Follow No One (Uncle Mo) was bought for $100,000 by farm president Hunter Rankin at OBS April in 2016, and went on to be stakes-placed the following year. When she failed to sell ($85,000 RNA) as a broodmare prospect at the Keeneland November Sale of 2018, Plank evidently agreed to a deal with Rankin's parents Alex and Sarah at Upson Downs Farm.

The choice of Bolt d'Oro as the mare's first mate itself had a nice Sagamore echo: the farm had raced Recruiting Ready, and partnered with WinStar in Global Campaign. With Hunter having meanwhile joined Alex on the Churchill Downs team, the Rankins certainly have an early rooting interest for the Derby!

Upson Downs sold Instant Coffee for $200,000 at the September Sale last year to Joe Hardoon, agent–the colt is trained for Gold Square LLC by Brad Cox–and returned this time round with his half-sister by Frosted. As luck should have it, Instant Coffee won on debut at Saratoga just a few days before the auction, helping her to realize $160,000 from HR Bloodstock. Unfortunately, Follow No One lost a Speightstown foal this year but she has been bred back to Maclean's Music.

Instant Coffee has an unusually compressed maternal family. Himself a first foal, he duly extends a sequence of young producers. Even his fifth dam was born as late as 1991; while the final foal of third dam Miss Mary Apples (Clever Trick), won the GIII Matron S. as recently as October. As foundation mare for KatieRich Farms, Miss Mary Apples had already produced three other stakes winners, including GI Kentucky Oaks-placed millionaire Lady Apple (Curlin) and Follow No One's dam Miss Red Delicious (Empire Maker), a hardy runner who won two dirt stakes at seven furlongs.

The recent action in this family actually stokes up the embers of one of the great beacons: Instant Coffee's sixth dam is a full-sister to none other than Affirmed. It has been well seeded, too: Uncle Mo, Empire Maker, Clever Trick and Holy Bull are a pretty resonant bunch of broodmare sires to find behind a horse with Derby aspirations.

For all the pep we've noted behind Bolt d'Oro himself, then, this is a pedigree strewn with Classic brands. And if Instant Coffee could parlay those into a Kentucky Derby, then who would still be counting the dimes won by his sire's other stock in the last days of December?

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The post Latest Bolt d’Oro Winner Scores for Ruis appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Ruis Racing owned Bolt d'Oro, the Santa Anita Derby runner-up, who would have been in line for the race's $600,000 first-place purse (he earned $200,000 for second).

Press Release:

This morning, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff overruled the CHRB's attempt to have the purse disqualification matter dismissed involving the horse Justify and allowed the matter to go forward. Ruis Racing LLC has alleged that the CHRB's failure to disqualify Justify from the 2018 Santa Anita Derby after testing positive for a prohibited substance was a violation of its own mandatory rules.

Ruis Racing attorneys Carlo Fisco and Darrell Vienna were encouraged by today's decision and look forward to finally bringing this matter to trial. Carlo Fisco stated: “We have a long way to go but are pleased that the court confirmed our client's undeniable claim in pursuing this case. Today was a technical hurdle introduced by the CHRB in attempt to escape its responsibility for the Justify debacle. We remain confident that the trial on this matter will expose the legal improprieties of the former CHRB Board and its former Equine Medical Director as well as the utter refusal by the CHRB Board of Stewards to correct an obvious injustice.”

Trial is expected to occur in mid-2022.

The post Judge Rules In Favor Of Ruis Racing In Lawsuit Over Justify’s Santa Anita Derby Victory appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The decision by Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff was in response to the CHRB's attempts to have the case halted based on a legal term known as a demurrer, which is an argument that there's no factual or legal basis for a case to go forward. With the ruling, Ruis's suit against the CHRB will now proceed. A trial date has tentatively been scheduled for August.

Ruis is the co-owner and also trained Santa Anita Derby runner-up Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro). After it was revealed in a report in the New York Times that the Bob Baffert-trained Justify tested positive for the substance scopolamine, Ruis began his quest to have the result of the race overturned with Bolt d'Oro declared the winner.

Ruis alleges that the CHRB failed to follow its own rules when it decided not to pursue penalties after Justify tested positive for scopolamine. The CHRB acted on recommendations from then executive director Rick Baedeker and equine medical director Dr. Rick Arthur. It was their call that Justify should not be disqualified because the positive test was the result of contamination linked to jimson weed.

At stake is the $600,000 winner's share of the purse. Second-place was worth $200,000.

“We just want simply for the Horse Racing Board to follow its own rules,” said Darrell Vienna, who, along with Carlo Fisco, is representing Ruis. “Their rules are unequivocal. They state that when a horse carries in its system a prohibited substance of the classification that scopolamine was classified at at the time of the race, they will be disqualified. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it.”

Vienna said he is holding out hope that the CHRB will reverse directions.

“Potentially, this decision might open the CHRB's eyes and have them do the right thing rather than being forced to do so,” he said.

Friday, Vienna and Fisco issued a joint statement, which read: “We have a long way to go but are pleased that the court confirmed our client's undeniable claim in pursuing this case. Today was a technical hurdle introduced by the CHRB in attempt to escape its responsibility for the Justify debacle. We remain confident that the trial on this matter will expose the legal improprieties of the former CHRB Board and its former Equine Medical Director as well as the utter refusal by the CHRB Board of Stewards to correct an obvious injustice.”

According to the attorneys representing Mick Ruis, a Los Angeles County Superior Court has ruled that the owner can continue his attempts to have the results of the 2018 GI Santa Anita Derby overturned. In January, the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) voted to abide by the stewards' decision to let the result stand, with Justify (Scat Daddy) declared the official winner.

The decision by Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff was in response to the CHRB's attempts to have the case halted based on a legal term known as a demurrer, which is an argument that there's no factual or legal basis for a case to go forward. With the ruling, Ruis's suit against the CHRB will now proceed. A trial date has tentatively been scheduled for August.

Ruis is the co-owner and also trained Santa Anita Derby runner-up Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro). After it was revealed in a report in the New York Times that the Bob Baffert-trained Justify tested positive for the substance scopolamine, Ruis began his quest to have the result of the race overturned with Bolt d'Oro declared the winner.

Ruis alleges that the CHRB failed to follow its own rules when it decided not to pursue penalties after Justify tested positive for scopolamine. The CHRB acted on recommendations from then executive director Rick Baedeker and equine medical director Dr. Rick Arthur. It was their call that Justify should not be disqualified because the positive test was the result of contamination linked to jimson weed.

At stake is the $600,000 winner's share of the purse. Second-place was worth $200,000.

“We just want simply for the Horse Racing Board to follow its own rules,” said Darrell Vienna, who, along with Carlo Fisco, is representing Ruis. “Their rules are unequivocal. They state that when a horse carries in its system a prohibited substance of the classification that scopolamine was classified at at the time of the race, they will be disqualified. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it.”

Vienna said he is holding out hope that the CHRB will reverse directions.

“Potentially, this decision might open the CHRB's eyes and have them do the right thing rather than being forced to do so,” he said.

Friday, Vienna and Fisco issued a joint statement, which read: “We have a long way to go but are pleased that the court confirmed our client's undeniable claim in pursuing this case. Today was a technical hurdle introduced by the CHRB in attempt to escape its responsibility for the Justify debacle. We remain confident that the trial on this matter will expose the legal improprieties of the former CHRB Board and its former Equine Medical Director as well as the utter refusal by the CHRB Board of Stewards to correct an obvious injustice.”

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“I would say 100% of my decision to sell the smaller farm, Chestnut Hill in Versailles, and to get Woodford Thoroughbreds had to do with Bolt,” Ruis said. “We have six barns, 90 stalls, 330 acres, 11 miles of fences and three miles of paved roads. It was so that, when I started breeding, we could raise a good horse. I bred 20 mares to Bolt myself.”

Ruis and his wife Wendy purchased Bolt d'Oro, a son of Medaglia d'Oro out of Globe Trot (A.P. Indy), for $630,000 at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. The handsome bay opened his career with three straight wins, sweeping both the GI Del Mar Futurity and GI FrontRunner S. before finishing third in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He inherited the win via disqualification in the 2018 GII San Felipe S. and was second behind subsequent Triple Crown winner Justify in a controversial edition of the GI Santa Anita Derby.

“Everything he did was natural and I knew he was going to pass his genes on,” Ruis said of his confidence in the young stallion, who is a half-brother to Grade I winner Global Campaign (Curlin) and stakes winner and multiple graded placed Sonic Mule (Distorted Humor). “He was so wonderful with all his natural speed, and the bloodlines–by Medaglia d'Oro out of a female family that was incredible.”

Bolt d'Oro retired to Spendthrift Farm in 2019 and began his stud career at a fee of $25,000. Ruis retained a 50% interest in the stallion and began planning his new breeding program.

“I think I had five mares [before Bolt d'Oro retired],” Ruis said. “Now we have 40 broodmares. I spent over $5.5 million in two years upgrading my broodmare band. That's just for broodmares. And then I got some younger, 2 and 3-year-old fillies that I spent good money on at auction for the bloodlines when they got done racing to go to Bolt.”

Ruis plans on sending his entire foal crop through the sales ring.

“I am going to sell because I don't want people to say we only keep the good ones and sell the other ones,” he explained.

Ruis sent two yearlings by Bolt d'Oro through the ring at Saratoga last month with the South Point Sales Agency consignment.

A filly by the stallion (hip 186) sold for $500,000. She is out of Scenic Road (Quality Road), who was purchased by Ruis while carrying the filly for $240,000 at the 2019 Keeneland November sale. A colt (hip 144) sold for $250,000. That yearling is out of the unraced Mary Edna (Pioneerof the Nile), who was purchased by Ruis for $825,000 as a yearling at the 2017 Keeneland September sale.

“They got a lot of looks and people loved them,” Ruis said of his Saratoga offerings. “And I thought, 'Wow, they should come see the ones that I have at the farm. I have 18 Bolts. I took two to Saratoga and I have 16 left. The people were teasing me, they were calling me Pappa Bolt. But me breeding 20 and I think there were 198 registered foals in his first crop, so it's not like I'm the only guy who bred to Bolt.”

Indeed, Bolt d'Oro's biggest success at Saratoga came from a colt bred by Dede McGehee's Heaven Trees Farm. The half-brother to champion Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d'Oro) was purchased by Larry Best's OXO Equine for $1.4 million.

“I spent about half an hour just looking at him and saying, 'What a gorgeous creature,'” Ruis said of the seven-figure yearling.

Of the colt's headline-garnering result, Ruis added, “It was very gratifying to know that we went in the right direction. I feel like I got the right partners when I went with Spendthrift and Mr. [B. Wayne] Hughes. Over the last four years, I had, not only a business partnership, but a friendship with Mr. Hughes and I learned a lot of business values and integrity from him. That man did things his way. I remember when I was being courted by every farm to try to buy Bolt as a stallion and someone said, 'Why are you going to Walmart?' And now I'm saying, 'Walmart is kicking everybody's butt.' I know I picked the right partners, they are like family, it's easy.”

Ruis will offer his third yearling by Bolt d'Oro when South Point Sales Agency sends a daughter of Teroda (Limehouse) (hip 194) through the ring at Keeneland Monday.

“She is an absolute standout,” Ruis said of the filly. “She is an absolutely beautiful filly.”

Ruis purchased Teroda, with the filly in utero, for $275,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton November sale. The 13-year-old mare is the dam of multiple graded stakes winner Sombeyay (Into Mischief) and graded stakes winner Domain Expertise (Kitten's Joy). Her 4-year-old daughter Bruja Escarlata (Street Boss) opened her career with three straight wins for Hronis Racing and trainer John Sadler before suffering her first loss when sixth in the Daisycutter S. at Del Mar in July.

“That mare has two stakes winners out of three babies and John Sadler thinks Bruja Escarlata will be a stakes winner after her next race,” Ruis said. “If you look at what I paid for her, what a steal that ended up being. Sometimes you get those good stories.”

Of similarities he sees in Bolt d'Oro's first crop of yearlings, Ruis said, “He is really stamping them with that big square front end and nice-boned babies with big shoulders. I am not a professional in breeding, but everyone said, 'Wow, Bolt is just stamping his babies.' They all look alike and all look good.”

After the Bolt d'Oro hype builds through the yearling sales, Ruis said he plans on offering weanlings by the sire this fall.

“I have some drop-dead gorgeous weanlings by him,” Ruis said. “So I'll probably put a few weanlings in the [November] sale also. People can get an idea now that this is what they look like as a yearling, so when they are buying these weanlings, it isn't so much of a guessing game. I'll probably sell five or six weanlings in November.”

The Keeneland September sale begins Monday with the first of two Book 1 sessions commencing at 1 p.m. Book 2 sessions Wednesday and Thursday begin at 11 a.m. Following a dark day Friday, the auction continues through Sept. 24 with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

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