Bullrush remained unbeaten in five starts when proving too strong for his rivals in the last at Randwick on Saturday, a victory that was celebrated long and hard in the lunchroom at Waikato Stud on Monday morning.
The O'Reilly gelding is the pride and joy of the tight knit team who are all involved in the ownership of the four-year-old thanks to the generosity of Stud principal Mark Chittick.
"He's a horse that has touched every staff member at Waikato since he was born as so many of them have had some form of involvement with him along the way," Chittick told NZ Racing Desk.
"He was a late foal who wasn't ready to go through the auction ring as a yearling and was also a little too immature to take to Karaka as a Ready To Run horse either.
"He really has been a long term project and so many of our team have put their heart and soul into getting him to the stage of being a racehorse that I thought the right thing to do was to have everyone here involved in his ownership.
"So one morning I announced to everyone that we would be giving a 10% share to the staff and it couldn't have worked out any better."
Sent to the Hawkes stable in Sydney, the half brother to Group I placed mare Sports Illustrated made a winning debut at Goulburn back in August last year and racked up three further wins before making his city debut at Randwick on the weekend.
Bloodstock Manager, Kerrie Cox explained Bullrush was a favourite at the stud before he raced.
"I think he may have been everyone's favourite horse even before he started racing and winning," Cox said.
"He was a December foal and needed a fair bit of care early on before he had an accident and split his knee open. Then when he first went into pre-training he got a bone chip in his foot that needed surgery which could have spelled the end for him.
"He is just so tough though and everyone falls in love with him so to see him doing so well is such a thrill.
"We were all so excited when Mark told us about what he was going to do and it's fair to say the horse has a pretty staunch fan club that has his picture plastered all over the morning tea room.
"We can't wait until takes on the really big time as there will be a planeload of kiwis headed across the Tasman to cheer him on."
