Paul Bulmahn's GoldMark Farm

Paul Bulmahn is the founder, chairman, and CEO of ATP Oil and Gas Corporation, based in Houston, Texas, which develops and produces natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.

Bulmahn purchased 2,500-acre GoldMark Farm in Ocala, Florida, in 2002, but didn’t get involved in racing until 2006. The farm is now home to more than 1,400 horses, with about a third of them belonging to Bulmahn, who has had success with stakes winners Elusive Lady, Double Espresso, and Moontune Missy among others and Mylute, who was third in this year’s Preakness Stakes. But Cross Traffic has taken him even higher.

Cross Traffic, a gray or roan colt by Unbridled’s Song out of the Cure the Blues mare Stop Traffic, was purchased for $300,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale in 2010. In the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, Cross Traffic led from the start almost to the finish, losing by a nose on a head bob to Sahara Sky. Trainer Todd Pletcher called it one of the worst beats he’s had in years.

The sting of Cross Traffic’s Metropolitan loss evaporated on a historic, sunny afternoon at Saratoga two months later. There was Cross Traffic in the winner’s circle after taking the $750,000 Whitney by three-quarters of a length over Successful Dan. There was Bulmahn holding the Whitney trophy with Marylou Whitney on the exact 150th birthday of Saratoga Race Course, August 3rd. “This is huge,” Bulmahn said. “To be here with Marylou Whitney on Saratoga’s 150th birthday. This is my first Grade 1.”