Bulle Rock was reportedly a bay son of the Darley Arabian, and said to be out of a mare by the Byerley Turk, though his maternal lineage is questioned by some sources.
[3] Pick's Turf Register references a Bullyrock, by the Darley Arabian, out of an "indifferent mare",[4] which The Sportsman newspaper claims was "evidently the same horse"[5] The name derives from 16th and 17th-century literature where it meant "boon companion".
In Irish mythology, "Bull Rock" is associated with Donn ("the dark one", from Proto-Celtic: *Dhuosnos),[8][9] an ancestor of the Gaels who is believed to have been a god of the dead.
[1] Edgar's America Race-turf Register, Sportsman's Herald and General Stud Book of 1833 is credited with "preserving his fame"[12] as other sources do not mention him until after this date.
[2] Originally owned by James Patton, Bulle Rock was later sold to Samuel Gist of Hanover County, Virginia Colony.