Zipse: Instant Coffee keeps young sire Bolt d'Oro piping hot
Outrunning more expensive options Good Magic and Justify, Spendthrift stallion Bolt d’Oro led all first-crop sires last year with better than $2.8 million in earnings. If Saturday’s Lecomte Stakes (G3) is any indication, 2023 is going to be even better for the 8-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro.
Showing off a powerful stretch kick down the Fair Grounds lane, Instant Coffee announced himself as a serious Kentucky Derby contender in winning this year’s first 20-point trail race.
The impressive 2 1/2-length score was the second straight graded-stakes victory for the Brad Cox-trainee and Instant Coffee's best race yet in a budding career that has seen him go 3-for-4.
A few weeks earlier, Cox unleashed another son of Bolt d’Oro in a Fair Grounds stakes race. That was Corona Bolt in the six-furlong Sugar Bowl Stakes, and the result was electrifying.
In his second career start, Corona Bolt sped away from his competition to win by nearly seven lengths. His final time of 1:09.96 earned him a notable 97 Beyer Speed Figure.
Out of the A.P. Indy mare Globe Trot, Bolt d’Oro was a very successful juvenile in 2017 for owner-trainer Mick Ruis. Purchased for $630,000 as a yearling, the well-bred bay quickly established himself as the top 2-year-old in California with three straight wins to begin his career.
An impressive debut win at Del Mar was followed by decisive victories in the Del Mar Futurity (G1) and Frontrunner Stakes (G1). A bad start and a wide trip in that season’s Breeder’s Cup Juvenile (G1) hampered his chances as the race favorite, and his third-place finish cost him an Eclipse Award.
Overtaken by Justify as the top 3-year-old out west when second in the Santa Anita Derby (G1), Bolt d’Oro would run only twice more after that.
Following off-the-board finishes in the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Met Mile (G1) he was transferred to the barn of Steve Asmussen. Getting ready for a return in the fall, he came back sore after a workout and was retired to stand at Spendthrift Farm.
Spendthrift liked his potential as a sire early on and purchased an interest in the colt before his run in the previous year’s Breeders’ Cup. That foresight is now paying off for the historic Lexington, Ky., farm.
A Grade 1 winner both sprinting and running two turns, Bolt d’Oro was a fast horse with classic breeding to run long. Never quite fulfilling his big potential on the racetrack, the handsome young stallion has been a big hit so far at stud.
His first notable success as a stallion came before his offspring even made it to the racetrack. In August 2021, his son Itzos, a half-brother to the great Rachel Alexandra, was plucked out of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearlings sale by Larry Best of OXO Equine for $1.4 million.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Bolt d’Oro’s early career as a sire has been the versatility his offspring have displayed. They can win sprinting, running two turns, and they seem as comfortable on the turf as they do on the dirt.
Besides Instant Coffee and Corona Bolt, he also sired Major Dude and Boppy O, who both have won graded stakes in New York on the turf, as well as It’s Bobs Business, a stakes winner in Minnesota who has won his first two starts by a combined 19 lengths while sprinting.
Unable to best Justify and Good Magic on the track, his first crop has nudged him ahead of his old rivals at stud. The leading freshman sire of 2022, Bolt d’Oro also led all sires in North America with 12 2-year-old stakes runners last year.
That impressive number continues to grow, and with Instant Coffee he now has his first multiple graded-stakes winner and possibly a horse who can make real noise on the first Saturday in May.