Mullins takes shot with Rockin Bayou in Futurity

DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Jeff Mullins had an ideal start to the Del Mar summer meeting, winning with four of his first seven starters July 16-18. Mullins could finish the meeting Monday with an equally strong flourish.

Rockin Bayou is the stable’s hope Monday in the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity, the top race of the summer meeting for 2-year-olds. American Pharoah won the 2014 Del Mar Futurity.

Rockin Bayou won his debut in a maiden race at five furlongs July 18, disputing the pace throughout and winning by a neck. The race was run on a sealed and sloppy track, which Mullins said should not define the colt. Rockin Bayou has not started since the maiden race.

“I’m not sure he’s an off-track horse,” he said.

Rockin Bayou is part of a projected Del Mar Futurity lineup led by Nyquist and Swipe, the first two finishers in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes here Aug. 8, and Blameitonthelaw, a maiden-race winner Aug. 2.

Away from the racetrack, the meeting is ending on a high note for Mullins. Gabriel Charles, who won the $400,000 Eddie Read Stakes on July 18, continues to recover from an early August colic operation that kept him from starting Aug. 15 in the Arlington Million.

On Friday, Mullins said Gabriel Charles remains at a veterinary clinic in Bonsall, Calif., and is scheduled to return to his stable at Santa Anita later this month.

“We hope to have him when we get home,” Mullins said.

Gabriel Charles will resume training this fall and will be pointed for a comeback in 2016.