Gulch (KY)

Determined, durable, and blessed with speed he could extend beyond that of a typical sprinter, Gulch didn’t waste any time becoming a fan favorite and serving notice he was going to be a force to be reckoned with on the racetrack.

Inducted

2026

Foaled

1984

Sire

Mr. Prospector

Dam

Jameela

Damsire

Rambunctious

Breeder

Peter M. Brant

Owner

Peter M. Brant

Trainer

LeRoy Jolley
D. Wayne Lukas

Career

1986-1988

Earnings

$3,095,521

Racing Record

32

Starts

Year	Starts	First	Second	Third	Earnings
Year	Sts	1	2	3	$
1986	7	5	1	0	$437510 $437,510
1987	14	3	3	2	$1297171 $1,297,171
1988	11	5	4	2	$1360840 $1,360,840

Biography

Determined, durable, and blessed with speed he could extend beyond that of a typical sprinter, Gulch didn’t waste any time becoming a fan favorite and serving notice he was going to be a force to be reckoned with on the racetrack.

Making his career debut on June 2, 1986, Gulch demonstrated his precocity with a dominant 7¾-length victory going five furlongs on the dirt at Belmont Park. Four more victories in New York followed — the Tremont (G3) at Belmont, the Saratoga Special (G2) and Hopeful (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, and the Futurity (G1) back at Belmont — proving Peter Brant’s homebred had the makings of a special racehorse.

Bred in Kentucky, Gulch (Mr. Prospector—Jameela, by Rambunctious) went on to win 11 graded stakes, earned an Eclipse Award, and closed out his career with a memorable victory in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Competing from 1986 through 1988, the bay colt posted a record of 13-8-3 from 32 starts with earnings of $3,095,521. He won multiple Grade 1 races each year of his career, ranging in distances from six furlongs to 1⅛ miles. Seven of his wins were in Grade 1 events. Trained by Hall of Famers LeRoy Jolley (1986 through 1987) and D. Wayne Lukas (1988) for owner Brant, Gulch was voted the Eclipse Award for Champion Sprinter in 1988.

Gulch was the first of two foals produced by Maryland-bred mare Jameela, who posted a record of 27-15-6 from 58 starts and earned more than $1 million while racing from 1979 through 1982. Jameela earned Grade 1 victories at Belmont Park in the Maskette, at Aqueduct in the Ladies’ Handicap, and at Delaware Park in the Delaware Handicap. Jameela’s other foal, Big Mukora, became an allowance winner.

After winning four graded stakes as a juvenile in 1986, Gulch won the Bay Shore (G2) and Wood Memorial (G1) before finishing sixth in the 1987 Kentucky Derby (G1), fourth in the Preakness (G1), and third in the Belmont (G1) as a 3-year-old. Between the Preakness and Belmont, Gulch won the Metropolitan Handicap (G1).

Gulch was on a seven-race winless streak when Lukas took over his training from Jolley prior to his 4-year-old campaign. During that championship season in 1988, Gulch won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), repeated in the Metropolitan Handicap (G1), and won the Carter Handicap (G1). He was never out of the money in 11 starts that year (at eight different tracks in six states), also placing in the Whitney Handicap (G1), Oaklawn Handicap (G1), Californian (G1), Tom Fool (G2), Iselin (G1), and Vosburgh (G1).

With his repeat victory in the Met Mile, Gulch became one of only six horses to win the race multiple times, joining Hall of Famers Devil Diver (1943, 1944, 1945), Equipoise (1932, 1933), Forego (1976, 1977), and Stymie (1947, 1948), as well as standout Mad Hatter (1921, 1922). Gulch is the only horse to win the race at age 3 and repeat the following year. No horse has won the race in consecutive years since Gulch.

In his final career start, Gulch rallied from off the pace and drove clear in the stretch to win the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) on a sloppy track at Churchill Downs, where the event was being held for the first time. The third time proved to be the charm for Gulch, who previously was fifth in the 1986 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) and ninth in the 1987 Classic (G1). In his Sprint victory against a star-studded 13-horse field, Gulch, ridden by Hall of Famer Angel Cordero, Jr., came out between horses entering the stretch, loomed boldly near the eighth pole, and then kicked past Play the King to win by 1¾ lengths, covering the six furlongs in 1:10.40. Afleet was another length back while 1987 Sprint winner Very Subtle was fourth and 1985 Sprint victor and future Hall of Famer Precisionist finished fifth.

Retired after his Breeders’ Cup victory, Gulch stood at stud at Lane’s End Farm near Versailles, Kentucky. He sired 680 winners, including 72 stakes winners, from 1,103 named foals, according to records from The Jockey Club. Gulch was No. 2 on the general sire list in 1995 and seventh in 2002. His top progeny included champion Thunder Gulch, winner of the Kentucky Derby (G1), Belmont Stakes (G1), and Travers Stakes (G1) in 1995; Eagle Café, winner of the Japan Dirt Cup (G1) and earner of more than $4 million; Court Vision, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1); Nayef, winner of Group 1 races in England and Dubai; Wallenda, winner of four graded stakes; and multiple graded stakes winner The Cliff’s Edge.

Following his stallion career, Gulch moved to Old Friends in Georgetown, Kentucky, where he lived from 2009 through 2016. He was the farm’s oldest living horse at the time of his death at the age of 32 on Jan. 17, 2016.