Citizen Bull Strikes for Power Partnership at Del Mar

This column highlights the performances of maidens who have made no more than five starts and who either sold for more than $500,000 at public auction, have siblings that are graded/group winners, or have dams that are graded/group winners. BloodHorse research shows maiden winners, in particular, who meet these criteria are more likely to go on to be graded stakes winners.

Del Mar

 On the heels of budding star juvenile Getaway Car , the power partnership group fondly known as the Avengers struck again on the shores of sunny Southern California with impressive first-time out winner Citizen Bull .

Two weeks ago, Getaway Car followed up his explosive debut with a handy score in the Best Pal Stakes (G3). The same horse that finished second to Getaway Car in his maiden run, Smash Hit , would also face another Bob Baffert roadblock in Citizen Bull Aug. 17, making him one of the unluckiest 2-year-olds of summer ’24.

Instead of high-tailing it to the front in Getaway Car-like fashion, Citizen Bull was more than content to let a bold Smash Hit pave the way. Flanking just outside of the pacesetter through opening splits of :22.50 and :45.17, jockey Martin Garcia nudged the Baffert trainee onward turning for home and he upped the ante, sticking a nose in front with a quarter-mile to run. Smash Hit proved a worthy foe, refusing to back down until Citizen Bull had edged clear in the final sixteenth.

Citizen Bull had worn down his rival by three-quarters of a length at the line in a final time of 1:03.42 for the 5 1/2 furlongs on a fast Del Mar main track.

A son of phenomenal sire Into Mischief   and out of the Distorted Humor mare No Joke, Citizen Bull possesses all the right ingredients to be an equally adept 2-year-old and older horse as the races stretch out in distance. The scopey-looking bright bay has a plethora of juvenile grade 1 winners interwoven throughout his pedigree. Into Mischief was a grade 1 winner at 2 and boasts 2022 champion 2-year-old filly Wonder Wheel as well as 2023 Champagne Stakes (G1) hero Timberlake  among his recent top-level 2-year-old scorers.

Citizen Bull’s dam, No Joke, was unraced after bringing $750,000 to Robert and Lawana Low at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The mare is a half sibling to two-time grade 1 winner Moonshine Memories, who captured the Del Mar Debutante (G1) and Chandelier Stakes (G1) as a 2-year-old in 2017. The daughter of Malibu Moon later fetched $3.4 million while in foal to Into Mischief at the 2021 Keeneland November Sale.

No Joke’s second dam, Evil Elaine, is the producer of the inimitable 1997 Horse of the Year Favorite Trick, one of the few horses in history to be awarded such an honor as a 2-year-old.

Citizen Bull, like Getaway Car, was purchased out of the 2023 Keeneland September Sale, dropping the hammer to SF Bloodstock/Starlight Racing/Madaket Stables for $675,000 out of the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment.