Last year ended on a high for Martha Jane Mulholland and her son, John Henry Mulholland. Their Mulholland Springs Farm, located near Lexington, Ky., has produced numerous top-notch Thoroughbreds. One notable graduate, Bodexpress , hit his stride, winning the Nov. 27 Clark Stakes Presented by Norton Healthcare (G1) before retiring due to injury.
Martha Jane and her late husband, John Robert, raced the likes of grade 1 winner Malibu Mint. But Martha Jane bred Bodexpress, who burst onto the national scene by placing in the 2019 Xpressbet Florida Derby (G1) as a maiden. “Yeah, we were obviously a little shocked when they ran him, when they ran Bode in the Florida Derby,” recalled John Henry. “Obviously, a little unusual, a little against the grain, I guess, to run a maiden in a race like that. I think he always had the talent and I think it’s really unfortunate that he got injured the way he did when it looked like he was just starting to become...We were just starting to scratch the surface on what he might be able to do in his career and looking like he might be one of the better, if not the best older horses, in the country[….]”
A bit green at three, Bodexpress matured at four. Facing off against the nation’s best older horses, he ran fifth in the 2020 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes presented by Runhappy (G1) and hit the board in two more stakes races before the Clark. “I was glad to see him do that,” John Henry mused. “I was glad for the horse.”
Mulholland Springs bought the colt’s dam, the City Zip mare Pied a Terre, at the 2013 Keeneland November sale. “She was a very well-balanced, pretty mare,” Martha Jane recalled. “We always strive for balance and they have to be pretty--we have to look at them every day! We want them to make our heart sing when you see them.” She described Bodexpress “was always a very beautiful, well-balanced foal, a little bit later” for an April 23-born.
Horses are Martha Jane’s lifelong passion. “I was in Oklahoma,” she recalled, “at the time and had fallen in love with horses from the time I was six, and horses have always just been my life’s work. I love everything about them and have enjoyed working with them all my life.” She practiced tax law before returning to equine pursuits, thanks to her husband. John Robert “was really quite at the top of his profession in the Quarter Horse show horse industry, and when he was injured in a car accident, we made the transition to Kentucky,” she remembered.
Though they couldn’t ride as much anymore, they still wanted to work with horses. Martha Jane’s cousin, Hall of Fame trainer MacKenzie Miller, helped provide the answer. “And so I always had dreamed of being in the Thoroughbred business,” she said, “and so we decided, ‘Let’s take a chance; let’s do it.’” Martha Jane brought her Quarter Horse expertise to Thoroughbreds. “Well, it’s remarkable that the qualities of a good horse are the same in virtually every discipline,” she said. “Balance is critical[...]” Mulholland Springs foals 100 mares and breeds 150 each season; the operation now owns about 50 broodmares.
Martha Jane bred Maximus Mischief (by Into Mischief), winner of the 2018 Remsen Stakes (G2). “That horse was possibly about as naturally talented as they come,” John Henry said. Standing at Spendthrift Farm for $7,500, Maximus Mischief will see his first foals arrive this year. The Mulhollands still own his dam, Reina Maria (by Songandaprayer), who has an Into Mischief yearling. She’s in foal to him again for 2021 and booked back for 2022.
Another recent success is Manny Wah, co-bred by Martha and Modo Tesio Equine, LLC. The Mulhollands purchased his dam, Battlefield Angel (by Proud Citizen), privately after she finished third in the 2013 Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1). Manny Wah earned his first black-type victory in his five-year-old—and turf—debut, the Jan. 16 Duncan F. Kenner Stakes at Fair Grounds.
Mulholland Springs consigned multiple six-figure weanlings to the 2020 Keeneland November sale. In September, a Mulholland-bred Into Mischief colt went under the hammer for $1 million; other stars include a Mulholland-consigned $775,000 Uncle Mo yearling. The family also sold Canadian champion Never Retreat and Malibu Mint, who fetched $1.3 million at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall sale.
Martha Jane mused of their successes, “And you know what the joy of this is? It enables those of us who work hard and long enough to be able to compete in the grade 1 races with sheikhs and queens and the top of the industry. It allows the opportunity for all of us that may not have as much money as others.”
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