Citizen Bull retires after BC Dirt Mile, will stand at Coolmore

Citizen Bull will be retired to take up stud duties in 2026 at Ashford Stud in Kentucky after his final start in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 1, Coolmore America said in a Sunday news release. A stud fee was not announced.

That final race will come a year to the day after Citizen Bull clinched an Eclipse Award by winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile over the same Del Mar main track as the upcoming Dirt Mile. He carries a record of 9: 5-0-1 with earnings of $1,556,000.

Flashback: Citizen Bull wins 2024 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

The Into Mischief colt got his career off to a flying start as a 2-year-old with an easy win over 5 1/2 furlongs on the main track at Del Mar in August 2024.

Following his impressive debut, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert pitched him straight into Grade 1 company three weeks later in the Del Mar Futurity, where from a wide draw he ran third.

Citizen Bull subsequently notched a pair of Grade 1 victories with dominant successes in the American Pharoah by two lengths and again by 1 1/2 lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to secure his status as the champion 2-year-old male of 2024.

His 3-year-old campaign saw him add two runaway victories to his résumé with a 3 3/4-length win in the Robert B. Lewis (G3) at Santa Anita and a 5 1/2-length victory against only two rivals in the Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar.

“The only Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old male by Into Mischief, Citizen Bull will make a fantastic addition to our roster,” Ashford Stud’s Dermot Ryan said in Sunday’s statement. “He is from that very potent Into Mischief-Distorted Humor cross that has already given us the proven Grade 1 sire Practical Joke and hails from the family of up-and-coming young Ashford sire Tiz The Law.”

Out of Distorted Humor mare No Joke, Citizen Bull has been campaigned by owners SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, Dianne Bashor, Determined Stables, Bat Masterson, Tom Ryan, Waves Edge Capital and Catherine Donovan. He was bought for $675,000 at the September 2023 Keeneland yearling sale.

After Citizen Bull’s Shared Belief Stakes win, trainer Bob Baffert said “he was back to a distance he really loves. The Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile is where we will be pointing. ... You saw the champion Citizen Bull today.”