BY LAURIE ROSS
Standing at The Summit Farm in Ocala, Florida, Bullet Gone Astray (Gone Astray – Permanent Makeup, by Red Bullet) is a fifth-generation Florida-bred whose early stud numbers are still developing. With only 14 foals on the ground and five winners from 11 starters, the sample size is small, but the pedigree behind him is worth a closer look.
AT THE RACES
Bred by Joe and Kris Carroll, Bullet Gone Astray sold for $15,000 at the 2015 OBS April Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale and campaigned for The Four Horsemen Racing Stable, Inc. and Lady Lindsay Racing Stables.
Just two months after going through the sales ring, Bullet Gone Astray won at first asking at Gulfstream Park. He then returned in August to demolish the field in the Mountaineer Juvenile (Listed) by a jaw-dropping nine lengths.
He went on to collect four more stakes placings at distances from six-and-a-half furlongs to a mile at Gulfstream and Gulfstream Park West, including a third-place finish in the 2016 Carry Back (Grade 3). When he retired, Bullet Gone Astray had hit the board in nine of 16 starts and banked $187,235.
PEDIGREE
Bullet Gone Astray’s pedigree has strong Phipps and Claiborne class throughout his pedigree, and a distaff line steeped in Florida breeding.
Gone Astray (Dixie Union – Illicit, by Mr. Prospector) won or placed in ten stakes from six to nine furlongs, taking the 2009 Ohio Derby (G2) and the 2010 Salvator Mile (G3). Gone Astray has sired 318 starters, 225 winners, 12 of them stakes winners, including 2016 Florida Horse of the Year Three Rules, only one of 11 males who swept the Florida Sire Stakes; Grade 3-winning turf mare Shifty She, and multiple Listed-winner, Noble Drama.
Gone Astray was the most accomplished foal out of the unraced Illicit (Mr. Prospector – Inside Information, by Private Account), a half-sister to 2005 Champion 3-year-old filly Smuggler (Unbridled).
Their dam is 1995 Champion Older Mare Inside Information (Private Account – Pure Profit, by Key to the Mint) a six-time Grade 1 winner and earner of more than $1.6 million, who was never off the board in 17 career starts. Inside Information’s half-sister Educated Risk (Mr. Prospector) was also an elite performer as a Grade 1 winner and millionaire.
Gone Astray’s third through fifth dams, Pure Profit, Clear Ceiling and Grey Flight are all Rene-de-Course mares.
Permanent Makeup (Red Bullet – Appealing Ms Sword, by Crusader Sword) showed genuine promise before her career was cut short after just three starts. She won her five-furlong debut in a sharp :59.89 at Calder Race Course, then closed for second after a wide trip in the five-and-a-half-furlong Cassidy. As a broodmare, she proved a willing producer; all six of her foals raced, including Galileo’s Affair (Treasure Beach (GB)), who made a remarkable 99 starts. Bullet Gone Astray is the immediate family’s only black-type earner.
Permanent Makeup’s dam, the Mockingbird Farm homebred Appealing Ms Sword (Crusader Sword – Appealing Miss Cox, by Valid Appeal) never made it to the races, but she more than made up for it as a broodmare. Joe Carroll spotted her value early, picking her up for a bargain of $4,000 at the 1997 Ocala Breeders’ Sales January Mixed Sale and getting seven winners in return. Three, Song of the Sword (Unbridled’s Song), Mr Sword (Rizzi) and his full sister, Valerie’s Dream, are Grade 2 placed.
The trail leads back to Harry T. Mangurian Jr.’ Mockingbird Farm, who bred Cox’s Miss (Cox’s Ridge – Aware, by Buckpasser), Bullet Gone Astray’s fourth dam and the foundation of this enduring Florida family.
Bullet Gone Astray’s second damsire Crusader Sword was bred by Claiborne, and fifth damsire, Cox’s Ridge, was part of their breeding program.
Red Bullet (Unbridled – Cargo, by Caro (Ire)) was bred by Adina Springs and was undefeated in his first three starts, including victory in the Gotham (G3) over eventual multiple Grade 1-winner Aptitude. He absorbed his lone maiden defeat in the Wood Memorial (G1) won by Fusaichi Pegasus, who would go on to win the 2000 Kentucky Derby (G1). Red Bullet skipped the Derby and made his rival pay for it in the Preakness Stakes (G1), turning back Fusaichi Pegasus’s Triple Crown bid. He added placings in the Cigar Mile (G1) and two other graded stakes before retiring with ten in-the-money finishes from 14 starts and earnings of $1,161,920.
Due to lifelong fertility challenges, Red Bullet stood just seven years and sired 197 foals, 107 of whom won, including 11 stakes winners led by 2008 Canadian Horse of the Year Fatal Bullet.
He has shown his best as a broodmare sire, through daughters who have produced ten stakes winners from 162 starters, including Regalo Mia (Sligo Bay (Ire)), who won Gulfstream Park’s Orchid (G3) in 2013 and the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf over a field that included Grade 1-winning Florida-bred Hooh Why and multiple graded-winning Florida-bred Romacaca.
Among the notable offspring of Bullet Gone Astray’s extended family currently competing are Guns Loaded (Gun Runner), an $800,000 Keeneland September Yearling who won last year’s Mucho Macho Man (Listed) in just his third start; Lynx (Brethren), an Arindel-campaigned Florida-bred who swept her first three starts in 2022 including the Desert Vixen and Susan’s Girl divisions of the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes; and African Rose (Bwana Charlie), a six-year campaigner who earned $586,757 with 46 starts in the Southwest.
AT STUD
Standing at Summit Farm in Ocala, Bullet Gone Astray’s early stud numbers are modest, with just 14 foals and five winners from 11 starters, but whose deep pedigree and small foal crop leave plenty of room for the story to develop. Most of his progeny are proving to be solid, durable competitors with double-digit starts, a promising early sign.
Return to the June 9 issue of Wire to Wire
