Mulhall thriving with hard work, heart for horses

DEL MAR >> Running a horse in the 2004 Kentucky Derby was the best of times and the worst of times for trainer Kristin Mulhall.

Only 21 at the time and two years removed from taking out her license, she saddled Imperalism, who finished third behind Smarty Jones.

It should have been a memorable experience for Mulhall, who celebrated her 39th birthday Tuesday, but the journey to the Derby with Imperalism turned crazy along the way.

Turns out all the media attention sparked a wave of affection from unwanted male admirers.

“I got tons of stalkers. I had tons and tons of crazy males from the state prison sending me stuff. People showing up at my house in the middle of the night,” Mulhall said during a telephone interview. “That was a scary experience. It was a ton of fun, going to the Derby and all that kind of stuff, but when I got home I didn’t feel safe at the house by myself.

“I would love to go back to the Derby, but I would be a lot more cautious. I was kind of out there in the center of attention at that time, but that’s where being a female and being young and stuff and being by myself, living by myself, that was a very, very scary time.”

Mulhall said she had one guy show up constantly at her home.

“He’d show up every night at 11:30 or midnight, put a piece of paper over my (security) camera and leave me stuff saying he was a secret admirer. He’d leave flowers for my dogs and all kinds of stuff,” she said. “The whole experience, being in Kentucky and the Derby, that was a great experience. Would I love to go back? Yes I would. Would I love all the outside attention? Not necessarily.”

Perhaps the Derby experience was a perfect example of why her father, Richard Mulhall, didn’t want her following him into the sport.

Mulhall, who died in 2015, trained for years and then gained prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a racing manager for The Thoroughbred Corporation.

“He just didn’t want a girl in this (racing) world. He wanted me to stay doing show horses,” Mulhall said. “I had to work at (building up business) and do it by myself because he didn’t really support me to start off with. But I’ve gotten my own group of people, people that have trusted me and stood by me for a long time. They’ve been very supportive of me.”

That support has served her well. She’s topped the $1 million mark in earnings six times and this year, with a barn that’s been downsized by design, has won with 13 of her 67 starters (19 percent) heading into Thursday’s card.

Mulhall, who’s operated Twilight Racing for about 10 years, has a string of 27 at Del Mar and has ownership or part ownership in about half of them. She likes to take project horses and make something out of them.

“I like projects,” she said. “I like horses that have issues or whatever and try to get the best out of them.

Trainer Kristin Mulhall, who’s operated Twilight Racing for 10 years, has topped the $1million mark in earnings six times.

I enjoy getting horses fit and getting the maximum, whatever we can get out of them. I don’t like taking $20,000 claimers and dropping them in for $8,000 and winning that way.”

Mulhall used to breed most of her own horses, but she sold her stallion and has changed her strategy. She’s not into the horse sales.

“Right now I want to focus on claiming and the horses that I have now,” she said.

One project that Mulhall had, an old gelding named Bluesthestandard, ended tragically after she purchased the horse privately for $16,000, retired him and kept him at her home in Monrovia for three years.

“I was riding him and stuff,” she said. “He was a great horse. Great personality. Ton of fun to have around. He had a ton of fans who wanted to show up at the house and see him.”

Bluesthestandard would walk around the yard, peaking into the house searching for Mulhall and looking at his reflection in the window.

She eventually donated him to Old Friends Farm in Kentucky, thinking he’d have a home for life.

But it turned out bad. Old Friends gave the horse to a woman who apparently didn’t share the same love of horses that Mulhall has for most of her life.

“The girl that they adopted him out to broke up with her boyfriend and left, they left the horse out in the field with his blanket on, he never got any food or anything and he starved to death,” she said. “It was a bad deal. Very, very sad.”

But for Mulhall, hopefully there will be another Bluesthestandard. She likes rescuing all types of horses, not just race horses. She pulls them out of kill pens and gives them a chance at life.

“That’s what I do at my house,” she said. “I rehab ‘em, make ’em into riding horses and place them (into homes). That’s kinda what I do.”

And win races. She’s kind of good at that, too.