Fast Bullet to stand at WinStar in 2015

Grade 2 winner and young stallion Fast Bullet will relocate to stand at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky., in 2015. The horse entered stud at Ben Walden Jr. and Elaine Walden’s Pauls Mill Farm, which returned to the stallion business in 2014 but will not stand a roster next year.

Fast Bullet joins his sire, champion Speightstown, on the roster at Kenny Troutt’s WinStar Farm, for a stud fee to be determined. He stood his debut season for an advertised fee of $7,500.

“Fast Bullet is the fastest son of Speightstown,” said WinStar president and CEO Elliot Walden, Ben Walden’s brother. “Speightstown has enormous sire-of-sires potential with his great pedigree, and there isn’t a better-looking or more talented candidate to do it than Fast Bullet. He mirrors Speightstown in every way: looks, class, and “godspeed,” as Bob Baffert put it.”

Fast Bullet, who raced for Ahmed Zayat’s Zayat Stables, won four of seven career starts in three seasons and earned $330,334. He scored by 2 1/2 lengths over stablemate Justin Phillip in the Grade 2 True North at Belmont in 2013, earning a career-best 110 Beyer Speed Figure.

Fast Bullet was retired in the fall of 2013 and was syndicated to stand at Pauls Mill, alongside Grade 1 winner I Want Revenge. The two marked a return to the stallion business for Ben Walden, who previously stood Bellamy Road, Artie Schiller, U S Ranger, and Summer Bird at Pauls Mill before the entire group relocated to WinStar prior to the 2012 breeding season.

“Mr. Zayat knew how much I liked [Fast Bullet], but we had committed to standing three new stallions already [for 2014],” Elliot Walden said. “When Ben decided he was getting out of the stallion business, I told Mr. Zayat we had to have Fast Bullet at WinStar. We’ve seen what works with his sire, so I believe it’s a great fit.”

Bred in Kentucky by Roy Gottlieb, Fast Bullet was a $230,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Zayat in 2009. The horse is out of the winning Dayjur mare Renfro Valley Star, who has also produced Grade 3-placed winner Blairs Roarin Star. His second dam is champion filly Brave Raj.