Dreams do come true: Ruis horse in Kentucky Derby

Columbia Falls resident Mick Ruis is proof that dreams really do come true.

As a teenager in 1979, Ruis sat at the track in Agua Caliente in Tijuana, Mexico, scheming of ways to come up with $1,500 so he could own a champion horse. Thirty-nine years later, as he prepares his horse, Bolt d’Oro, for the 144th running of the Kentucky Derby, Ruis is living that dream.

Bolt may have cost a little more than $1,500 ($630,000 to be exact), but the dream remains the same: To win.

With a victory at the San Felipe Stakes in California March 10, Bolt and Ruis assured themselves a start at Churchill Downs May 5.

“It hasn’t really set in yet, because we are not really quite there yet. Anything can happen with a horse, from being sick the day before the race or getting injured. I’m trying to block it all out of my mind,” Ruis said. “It would be an amazing high, but it could be more of a low if something happens but, if everything goes well, we might have a shot to bring that title home to Montana.”

Ruis’s trip to the top of the sport reads like a Hollywood script. He wanted to get into horse racing, but didn’t have the money. Never graduated high school, but built a contracting company from scratch and sold it for $2.5 million to get into racing. Dream turns to nightmare and Ruis is forced to get out of horse racing, $1 million in debt.

Undeterred, Ruis creates a second business, a scaffolding company, more successful than before, sells the majority of the company for $78 million and gets back into to the world of horse racing, where his horse becomes one of the favorites, if not the favorite, to win the 2018 Kentucky Derby.

Not enough? Bolt d’Oro begins his career as a sensation on the two-year-old circuit, but suffers a muscle pull before beginning his campaign as a three-year-old.

Many in the sport doubt Bolt will be able to race at the same level again, but he wins the San Felipe Stakes to secure a spot at the Kentucky Derby. Bolt crossed the finish line second by a head in that race after a stretch-long duel with McKinzie, but was awarded the win by the stewards after being bumped by that rival in the late stretch.

All that, and Ruis also trains his own horses, having secured his training license (his old one had expired) last spring with the help his daughter, Shelbe, also a trainer. Shelbe initially trained their horses, including 2016 Del Mar Debutante Stakes winner Union Strike.

Ruis currently owns about 40 horses, including Bolt d’Oro, who was purchased for $630,000 at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale from the consignment of Denali Stud. The colt was bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm.

While Ruis does own a ranch in Lexington, Kentucky, he says he prefers to break and train his horses on his ranch near Bigfork.

“I just love having the good, clean Montana air for the horses and I love the rich soil that we have to grow all of our grass with. I think Montana is just good for them,” he said.

It seems to be working well so far.

As for the San Felipe win, Ruis said it was amazing to get the win over McKenzie, a horse trained by horse racing legend Bob Baffert, whose horses have won four Kentucky Derbies, six Preakness Stakes, two Belmont Stakes and three Kentucky Oaks.

“It was really satisfying,” Ruis said. “Bob might have 50 horses that his clients have paid over $500,000 for and for us to have a horse that could beat the one he considers the best in his barn, it was absolutely incredible.”

The 20 starting positions for the Kentucky Derby are determined by a series of races known as the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Horses compete in the races to earn points toward a starting position, with 35-40 points being the usual cutoff. With the 50-point win at San Felipe, Bolt has 64 points.

Next up for Bolt and Ruis will be the Santa Anita Derby on April 7, where the winner earns 100 points and a purse of $1 million.

“We want to go in and run well there, come out healthy and then start getting ready for the Kentucky Derby,” Ruis said. “I never in a million years thought I would be here. It’s amazing to be where we are now.”