This column highlights the performances of maidens who’ve made not more than 5 begins and who both bought for greater than $500,000 at public public sale, have siblings which can be graded/group winners, or have dams which can be graded/group winners. BloodHorse analysis exhibits maiden winners, specifically, who meet these standards usually tend to go on to be graded stakes winners.
Del Mar
 On the heels of budding star juvenile Getaway Automotive , the facility partnership group fondly often known as the Avengers struck once more on the shores of sunny Southern California with spectacular first-time out winner Citizen Bull .
Two weeks in the past, Getaway Automotive adopted up his explosive debut with a useful rating within the Greatest Pal Stakes (G3). The identical horse that completed second to Getaway Automotive in his maiden run, Smash Hit , would additionally face one other Bob Baffert roadblock in Citizen Bull Aug. 17, making him one of many unluckiest 2-year-olds of summer season ’24.
As an alternative of high-tailing it to the entrance in Getaway Automotive-like vogue, Citizen Bull was greater than content material to let a daring Smash Hit pave the best way. Flanking simply outdoors of the pacesetter by means of opening splits of :22.50 and :45.17, jockey Martin Garcia nudged the Baffert trainee onward turning for dwelling and he upped the ante, sticking a nostril in entrance with a quarter-mile to run. Smash Hit proved a worthy foe, refusing to again down till Citizen Bull had edged clear within the last sixteenth.
Citizen Bull had worn down his rival by three-quarters of a size on the line in a last time of 1:03.42 for the 5 1/2 furlongs on a quick Del Mar principal monitor.
A son of phenomenal sire Into Mischief  and out of the Distorted Humor mare No Joke, Citizen Bull possesses all the correct substances to be an equally adept 2-year-old and older horse because the races stretch out in distance. The scopey-looking brilliant bay has a plethora of juvenile grade 1 winners interwoven all through his pedigree. Into Mischief was a grade 1 winner at 2 and boasts 2022 champion 2-year-old filly Marvel Wheel in addition to 2023 Champagne Stakes (G1) hero Timberlake amongst his current top-level 2-year-old scorers.
Citizen Bull’s dam, No Joke, was unraced after bringing $750,000 to Robert and Lawana Low on the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The mare is a half sibling to two-time grade 1 winner Moonshine Reminiscences, 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 whereas in foal to Into Mischief on the 2021 Keeneland November Sale.
No Joke’s second dam, Evil Elaine, is the producer of the inimitable 1997 Horse of the Yr Favourite Trick, one of many few horses in historical past to be awarded such an honor as a 2-year-old.
Citizen Bull, like Getaway Automotive, was bought 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 Gross sales Company consignment.
CITIZEN BULL ($7.20) appeared like an expert within the seventh at @DelMarRacing. He broke his maiden on debut for coach @BobBaffert, The two-year-old colt by @spendthriftfarm‘s Into Mischief was ridden by Martin Garcia.
The G1 Del Mar Oaks is subsequent: https://t.co/CDoj9VG9iY pic.twitter.com/dI2PjTdvTc
— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) August 18, 2024
| BloodHorse Maiden Watch | |||||||
| Notable 2-year-old maiden winners for the week of Aug.12-Aug.18 | |||||||
| Date | Observe | Race | Horse | Sire | Dam | Begin | Maiden Watch Eligibility Standards |
| 8/17 | DMR | 7 | Citizen Bull | Into Mischief | No Joke | 1 | $675K Yearling |
| 8/17 | SAR | 2 | Harmony Inexperienced | Conflict Entrance | Mata Mua | 1 | Half Sibling to G3SW Scarlett Sky |
| 8/18 | SAR | 1 | Briland | McKinzie | Bay Harbor | 1 | $675K 2-Yr-Outdated |
