Mula Gula is a horse who has by any stretch of the imagination defied the odds. This unlikely tale of success began more than thirty years ago, when Ben Gula began to dabble in Thoroughbred horse racing. The racehorses he owned led his son Steve to conclude that the Sport of Kings was best left for those looking for a tax write-off.

Steve Gula, a native of Washington state, was acquainted with local bloodstock agent Dana Halvorson, who approached him with the offer to buy a horse on his behalf, suggesting Gula set aside a budget of $50,000 for the purchase. Gula was hesitant to become involved in a losing venture but, reluctant to turn Halvorson down, authorized a budget of about half that amount. Gula believed that with a lower dollar figure he would not hear back from Halvorson.

In the world of Thoroughbred breeding, pedigree equates to money, so a horse judged to have a unfashionable pedigree commands relatively little money when it goes to public auction. The highest price for a weaned foal in North America in 1996: $1,400,000, for a colt later named Winthrop who never raced. The second highest price was $1,000,000 for the filly Blissful, who earned $3,240 in three starts. Lil E. Tee was a top-quality racehorse–one of the races he won on his way to earning more than $1,400,000 was the Kentucky Derby-G1–but was overlooked in the breeding arena. During his second season at stud, Lil E. Tee bred a mare with a modest race record but a quality pedigree several generations away, Night Tan. About a year later, on February 19, 1996, Night Tan foaled the bay colt that Dana Halvorson picked out in November of that year with Steve Gula in mind. 

Thumbs up after Mula Gula’s Oceanside Stakes win in July of 1999. Ben and Beatrice Gula celebrate at Del Mar
alongside their son Steve. The best racing was yet to come.