By Michael Adolphson
It is hard to find a horse more likable in racing than Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}). The chestnut capped off his sophomore campaign with a victory in the GI Clark H., making him a top candidate for the inaugural running of the $12 million GI Pegasus World Cup at the same nine-furlong trip. However, an EHV outbreak at his winter base of Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots and a subsequently complicated testing process proved stumbling blocks too high to cross for his disheartened connections.
Owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm, Steve Asmussen's stable star now opts for a 'Plan B' that could provide big things for the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile runner-up.
“He has shipped to Oaklawn and we are pointing him to the [GIII] Razorback [H. Feb. 20],” said David Fiske, manager for Winchell Thoroughbreds. “We obviously would have preferred to run him in Miami [in the Pegasus]. He was doing really well and still is. That would have given us more time and let us evaluate him and his 4-year-old season a little better. Now we are backed up a little bit.”
The presence of the 2016 GII Louisiana Derby winner adds potency to the already amped-up prize money for the Razorback, which now stands at $500,000 compared to $350,000 in 2016. A big effort from Gun Runner in the Razorback could possibly set him up for a run in the $10 million G1 Dubai World Cup Mar. 25.
“As far as Dubai, that has yet to be determined,” Fiske continued. “We will see where he is after the Razorback, but we are behind now and it seems a little less attractive. We just don't have as much time, but Mr. Winchell, [Three Chimneys] and Steve will sit down afterward and decide on that.”
Gun Runner turned in an eye-catching work at the Fair Grounds Feb. 5, getting six furlongs in 1:13 flat–a move which, like all of his this winter at the New Orleans oval, impressed clockers and his connections. If the talented 4-year-old, who was also third in both the 2016 GI Kentucky Derby and GI Travers S., proves as sharp in the Razorback as his recent works, he may get a second chance to take on Travers, Pegasus and GI Breeders' Cup Classic hero Arrogate (Unbridled's Song), who is also under consideration for the Dubai World Cup.
“From his standpoint, he is happy, doing great and he doesn't know that he couldn't go [to Florida],” Fiske concluded. “In this game, sometimes you never know when you're doing the right thing or doing well, but who knows, it may turn out to be a good thing that we couldn't go. He'll run on the 20th and we'll discuss and decide from there.”
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