Bolo

A stakes winner on the turf, Bolo's connections decided to try him in a graded stakes on dirt in his next out. Bolo didn't win the race but he definitely didn't disgrace himself, finishing third after showing a huge turn of foot in the stretch. Bolo followed that third place up with another credible third in the Santa Anita Derby behind probable Derby favorite Dortmund.

By the Dynaformer son Temple City, whose first crop is three this year, Bolo has the Kentucky Derby in his blood. His second dam Aspenelle is also the granddam of Minining My Own, the dam of 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird and Kentucky Derby third place finisher Dullahan.

Bolo finished 12th in the Kentucky Derby but bounced back to win an allowance race before he was given time off following an unplaced finish in the Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes.

Bolo seems to have found a home on the grass following his return to racing in 2016, winning the Grade 2 Arcadia Stakes and finishing second in the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile Stakes. After a pair of unplaced finishes to close his 2016 season, Bolo scored a repeat win in the Arcadia Stakes to open his 2017 season. He then finished third in two out of his next three stakes tries, the Kilroe and the Thunder Road Stakes. 

After finishing sixth in the 2017 Shoemaker Mile, Bolo was away from the track for nearly two years, returning to run fifth in an allowance optional claiming race in late April 2019 at Santa Anita Park. That was but a tune-up, however, for the gelding’s return to prominence. He was sent off at 32.90-1 odds in the 2019 Shoemaker Mile on Memorial Day, but set an unchallenged comfortable pace under Florent Geroux and had plenty in reserve to hold off River Boyne for a career-defining 1 ¼-length win in the Grade 1 stakes, which gave him an automatic berth to the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita.