New Grade I-Winning Pair at Three Chimneys

With less than three weeks remaining for stallions to make their mark on the General Sires list this year, Into Mischief and Gun Runner have the 1-2 spots solidly secured for the leading North American sires by earnings. In 2025, Three Chimneys Farm will add two sons of those top sires to their roster as Newgate and Gun Pilot become the first stallions by both Into Mischief and the farm's own Gun Runner to stand at Three Chimneys.

Gun Pilot, a homebred for Three Chimneys out of their unraced Smart Strike mare Bush Pilot, is the only son of Gun Runner to join the stallion ranks in Kentucky this coming year after three sons of the sire sensation were added in 2024.

“It's very exciting for us to have a homebred by Gun Runner joining our stallion roster,” said Three Chimney's Director of Stallion Nominations Rebecca Nicholson. “Gun Pilot is a great physical. He does have a lot of the personality and physical traits of Gun Runner, but I would say he's a bit of a bigger, scopier version of him. He's also got that huge, loose walk that you see in so many of the Gun Runners.”

A debut-winning juvenile going seven furlongs for Steve Asmussen, Gun Pilot went on to race at three and four and he earned his first stakes win in this year's GI Churchill Downs Stakes when he drew away by 2 ½ lengths.

That victory came on Kentucky Derby Saturday, a day when Gun Runner couldn't seem to stay out of the headlines. Just before Gun Pilot's score, Gun Runner's daughter Vahva got her first Grade I in the Derby City Distaff Stakes and later that day Sierra Leona, also by Gun Runner, was runner-up in the GI Kentucky Derby.

“It was a huge day for Gun Runner,” Nicholson recalled. “Gun Pilot won the Churchill Downs Stakes going seven furlongs and that's a race that I think has proven to be such an important stallion-making race. You've had horses like Distorted Humor and Speightstown who have won that race in the past and gone on to be important stallions.”

In more recent years, young sires Cody's Wish, Jackie's Warrior and Mitole claimed the Churchill Downs.

Also during his 4-year-old season, Gun Pilot was runner-up to Mullikin (Violence) in the GI Forego Stakes.

Nicholson said that Gun Pilot, who will stand for $17,500 in his debut season, has attracted a wide variety of mares and she added that A.P. Indy-line mares in particular might make for an interesting cross. GI Breeders' Cup Classic champ Sierra Leone, recent GII Cigar Mile Handicap victor and GISW Locked, and other Grade I winners Taiba and Society are all Gun Runner progeny hailing from A.P. Indy-line mares.

“Gun Pilot is out of a Smart Strike mare and he's completely free of A.P. Indy, so there's going to be a lot that suits him,” she said. “We look forward to supporting both him and Newgate with our own broodmare band.”

Newgate, another Grade I-winning millionaire, will stand for $20,000 in 2025.

Newgate will stand for $20,000 in 2025 | Sara Gordon

The son of Into Mischief was an $850,000 Keeneland September yearling and at 1-2 odds, he became the 32^nd 'TDN Rising Star' for his sire the following July when he won by 3 ½ lengths at Del Mar, completing 5 ½ furlongs in 1:03.89. Trained by Bob Baffert and campaigned by the partnership of SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Robert E. Masterson, Stonestreet Stables LLC, Jay A. Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital LLC and Catherine Donovan, the colt went on to claim the GIII Robert B. Lewis Stakes at three and the GI Santa Anita Handicap at four. He also was a head behind the winner in his third-place finish in the GI California Crown Stakes this year.

“He's a horse that had so much speed and precocity and he was able to carry it a long distance,” noted Nicholson. “To win on debut as a 2-year-old and then also win a Grade I at a longer distance as a 4-year-old, it takes a lot of versatility.”

A son of the graded stakes-placed Majestic Warrior mare Majestic Presence, Newgate is a full-sister to Denim and Pearls, who won this year's GII Beaumont Stakes and later sold to Spendthrift Farm for $2.8 million.

“He has a lovely female family and an absolutely tremendous physical,” said Nicholson. “I think he's one of the best-looking sons of Into Mischief. He's a horse that has a ton of size, scope and substance. He's a great mover and has all the qualities physically that you look for in a stallion.”

With the additions of Gun Pilot and Newgate, Three Chimneys has a roster of six stallions for 2025. Gun Runner, who was listed privately this year, will stand for $250,000. Meanwhile Volatile, who has produced 23 winners including five stakes horses from his first crop this year, will stand for $12,500.

“He's a horse that I think has a lot of upside right now because there are a lot of good horses who are pointing to stakes races next,” noted Nicholson. “He will be another popular stallion here next year.”