A real looker! Mullins Bay
The Mullins Bay youngsters are off to a flying start. Champion SA breeders Summerhill Stud’s son of Machiavellian sired his second juvenile winner last week, when the very smart looking Gitiano paralysed his opposition to win going away over 1200m.
The extraordinarily handsome Mullins Bay has turned all the clever heads since his arrival in South Africa.
And for a horse who never raced at two and won from 1800m to 2100m, he is producing the goods where it matters most. And refreshingly early too!
Two juvenile winners in five weeks speak of great things to come from a stallion whom one would reasonably expect to get them to stay on. And this precocious ability, coupled with the core potential to go on to greater things, is surely the essence sought by anybody who has ever raised a catalogue in anticipation in the vicinity of a sales arena?
The Tyrone Zackey-trained Croke Park won an excellent race on debut when streaking clear late to win a Maiden Juvenile Plate over a mile at Turffontein in early June. The Somerset Stud product out of the Gallic League mare, Streisand, was backed from an opening call of 25-1 all the way into 15-2. His trainer thinks highly of him, we hear.
Then the Alec Laird-trained Gitiano was an equally impressive winner at his second start over the Scottsville 1200m last Tuesday, when he showed eye-catching acceleration to win going away. Out of the Jet Master mare, Poppy Elizabeth, he had run a very good third to the promising The Hangman on debut.
Mullins Bay was the best racing son of sire of sires Machiavellian in 2006 and achieved a Timeform rating of 121lbs at 3 years old. From just 14 racecourse starts, he earned 12 times and won 3 races, including the Gr3 Grand Prix Strensall Stakes beating Andean and the TFR 126 rated Maraahel.
He hails from an outstanding family and is out of Broodmare of the Year, Bella Colora (by Bellypha) who won 4 races in the UK and France. These included victories in the Gr2 Prix de l’Opera and the Gr3 Candelabra Stakes. She produced champion Stagecraft( by Sadler’s Wells) who won 6 races, including the Gr2 Prince Of Wales Stakes, the Gr1 Canadian Turf Handicap and the Gr2 Breeder’s Cup Handicap. Mullins Bay is a brother to two other Group winners..
Champion South African trainer Mike De Kock, who had the honour of training the handsome fellow for a stretch of his racing career including a great third placed finish in the 2007 Godolphin Mile at the Dubai World Cup meeting, may have put his finger on it, when he went on record as observing that ‘Mullins Bay was surprisingly fast.’
Mullins Bay produced 50 foals from his first crop of 2009. Only thirteen have run. Two have won. That’s good going.
His 6 lots on the 2011 National Yearling Sale averaged R107 500, with his top seller going for R160 000.
He stands at Summerhill for a fee of R15 000. Make a note of this one.
