Paynes Bay is a half-brother to multiple graded stakes winner Seattle Dawn and Truckee, a stakes winner currently standing in California. Paynes Bay is also a half-brother to the stakes-winning Island of Silver and stakes-placed Lord Charmer. His second dam is the blue hen mare Courtly Dee, the dam of eight stakes winners and 1983 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year.
Eugene and Laura Melnyk's Paynes Bay has been retired from racing and will stand the 2004 breeding season at T.C. Westmeath Farm near Shelburne, Ontario. His fee will be $2,500 (Canadian funds).A 5-year-old son of Mr. Prospector, out of the Seattle Slew mare Embellished, Paynes Bay won two of 18 starts, placing seven times, and earned $107,990.An $825,000 Keeneland November sale weanling in 1998, Paynes Bay was purchased by Eugene Melnyk out of the following year's Keeneland September yearling sale for $1.6 million. Paynes Bay was bred in Kentucky by John R. Gaines Thoroughbreds and Orpendale.