Bolt d’Oro filly gets first stakes win in Santa Anita’s Unzip Me S.
October 2, 2023
Spendthrift Farms’ Ruby Nell and Edwin Maldonado win the $100,000 Unzip Me Stakes Sunday, October 1, 2023 at Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, CA. Benoit Photo
Spendthrift Farm’s Ruby Nell powered down the stretch of the Santa Anita turf course to win the $100,000 Unzip Me S. on Sunday afternoon.
This was the first stakes win for the 3-year-old Bolt d’Oro filly, who is now 3-2-1 in seven starts, with earnings of $198,520. All three of her wins came since switching to the turf in late May.
With several foes intent on showing their speed at the outset of the 6 ½-furlongs, Ruby Nell was eighth after a quarter-mile before she began to make up ground. She was extremely wide when crossing over the main track and came with plenty of run in the stretch to out-foot Fast and Shiny, winning by a length in 1:11.35 on the firm turf.
“She’s a good filly, it took us a couple of races to kind of find out what she wanted, but she really wanted grass and is pretty good at it,” said trainer Richard Mandella.
Bred by Solana Beach Sales, Ruby Nell sold for $1.2 million at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Florida March sale. She is one of Bolt d’Oro’s 8 stakes winners and 19 stakes horses overall in 2023.
Bolt d’Oro, last year’s champion Freshman sire is currently second on the Second-Crop list. Spendthrift recently announced his 2024 fee at $60,000 S&N.