US racing: Sensational start for Gun Runner continues
A one-two in the Haskell Stakes continued Gun Runner's brilliant start as a stallion. Laura Joy takes a look.
On one side of the Atlantic Ocean, a question lingers over the strength and depth of the three-year-old crop of 2022. Meanwhile a long-haul flight away, there is another three-year old crop tearing up the record books. After siring a one-two in the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes on Saturday night, it’s time to bring the exploits of second crop sire Gun Runner to European attention.
Cyberknife led home Taiba in a typically deep Haskell Stakes, with favourite and previously unbeaten Jack Christopher (Munnings) back in third. It was a course-record performance from the winner, a record that had stood since 1985. The talented Gun Runner pair are just the latest feather in their sire's cap, both the first two being among Gun Runner’s five Grade One winners from his first crop, and we haven’t even reached the autumn.
Not an overly precocious horse, Gun Runner made his winning debut in September and followed up in an allowance at Keeneland. On his third and final juvenile start, he was fourth in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. He arrived at the Kentucky Derby with two Grade 2 wins under his belt and finished a respectable third behind Champion Two Year Old Nyquist (Uncle Mo) and subsequent Preakness Stakes winner Exaggerator (Curlin). Whereas precocious Nyquist never won again, Exaggerator was to exert his dominance over three-year-old Gun Runner once more in the Haskell, the last time Gun Runner was to finish off the board in eleven subsequent starts, nine of them in Grade Ones.
Gun Runner clinched his all-important Grade One on his final start as a three-year-old in November. Not an overly strong renewal of the Clark Handicap, perhaps it was the lack of X-factor that blessed us with Gun Runner’s presence as a four-year-old. Whatever the reason, we must be thankful for what followed. Whilst Arrogate had his measure in the Dubai World Cup, that was the only blip in seven races from February 2017 to his retirement after the Pegasus in January 2018.
Gun Runner set the record straight leading from start to finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic 2017 with his old rival Arrogate in fifth, the previous year’s Classic winner. Retiring for an opening fee of $70,000 to Three Chimneys in Kentucky, he was afforded a decent opportunity to succeed, sometimes a curse disguised as a blessing. Expectations were high, his first crop sold well but nobody could have predicted what was to come.
On the leading North American sire list according to black type winners, Gun Runner sits in fifth place with nine. Eight years his senior is Into Mischief at the top of the table with fifteen. It is quite simply astounding to see Gun Runner is just one black type winner behind Curlin and Uncle Mo, both responsible for ten in 2022. Gun Runner was a victim of their sire power in the Kentucky Derby when second to their respective sons Nyquist and Exaggerator and what a way to even the score. Gun Runner currently ties with Curlin with the leading number of Grade One winners – both have three. Uncle Mo relies on Belmont Stakes winner Mo Donegal, his sole Grade One winner in 2022.
We are only just past halfway in the 2022 season and Gun Runner has 12.5% stakes winners to runners. Into Mischief, who has eleven crops of racing age, has eleven stakes winners for 10% stakes winners to runners. Let’s draw comparison with another Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Curlin who retired for a similar opening fee of $75,000 – Curlin is responsible for 18 stakes winners from eleven crops to race. That’s an 11% strike rate in stakes winners to runners. Into Mischief and Curlin’s current three-year-olds were conceived off $100,000 and $150,000 respectively. Unlike Gun Runner, they have older horses on the ground running for them. Now are you beginning to see the magnitude of Gun Runner’s achievements to date?
Gun Runner’s pedigree alluded to the possibility he could make it in his second career at stud. He’s by Candy Ride, an Argentinian Champion who retired to Hill ‘n’ Dale for just $12,500. Having made his mark with his early crops, Candy Ride was beginning his ascension when Grade Two winner Quiet Giant by Giant’s Causeway visited him in 2012 to conceive Gun Runner from a $50,000 fee. Giant’s Causeway was top class in everything he did and his achievements as a broodmare sire were no exception. Quiet Giant is a half-sister to Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Saint Liam (Saint Ballado). The pair’s dam Quiet Dance is by Quiet American, another notable broodmare sire.
It’s unlikely we will get many opportunities to see Gun Runner’s progeny on turf but you don’t need to search too far for encouragement. 1986 Irish Champion Two-Year-Old Minstrella who was by 1977 Derby winner The Minstrel (Northern Dancer) is a half-sister to Gun Runner’s third dam Misty Dancer.
Misty Dancer was by Lyphard, another son of Northern Dancer who did his racing in France where he won the Prix Jacques le Marois. Gun Runner’s rapid start means the Americans will do their utmost to keep his progeny tightly within their grasp and we can only wishfully hope the European breeding powerhouses afford us the chance to see them in the flesh.
There are invaluable lessons to be learned from Gun Runner's success story. He wasn’t spectacularly precocious, not as a juvenile or as a three- year-old. He is not from a sexy sire line and he showed his best form as an older horse. He was progressive and his record shows he was far from unbeatable. The record book is well and truly ripped to shreds. Gun Runner - remember the name. Perhaps he will be the one to inspire much needed change amongst the domestic market.