The only yearling consigned by the late David Mullins’ Doninga sold for $350,000 during the early portion of the third session of the 2008 Keeneland September yearling sale Sept. 10 at the Central Kentucky auction house.
The son of Tiznow out of the Strawberry Road mare Pola was purchased by Kaleem Shah. The bay colt is a half-brother to stakes winners Going Wild (by Golden Missile) and Pola’s Place (by Out of Place).
“Today was very bittersweet. I wished he (Mullins) was here to help us with it,” said John O’Meara, who consigned the colt on behalf of Mullins as agent for Milestone Farm and bred him in partnership with Charlie Goldberg and Richard Rosee. “I think he would be very excited with the result, and I think he was up there helping us along the way.
“It was a great tribute to him today to get that kind of money and I just wish we could do it again for him,” said O’Meara, who had been associated with Mullins for 15 years.
Mullins died Aug. 18 at Saint Joseph Hospital's hospice center in Lexington after a lengthy illness. He was 51.
O’Meara said Doninga will be represented by a dozen mares during the 2008 Keeneland November breeding stock sale.
“He was always someone that I looked up to and he gave me great advice,” O’Meara said. “He was very precocious in getting ideas out there about getting horses sold. He had some great ideas and he followed through with his ideas with his own money and got it done.”
