Gun Runner

Believe it or not, it was just three years ago this month--a mere 36 months ago--that Gun Runner got his first stakes winner as a sire. The Three Chimneys stallion shot to the top so quickly and has such a long list of elite performers that no one would be blamed for mistaking his tenure as far longer. To refresh all of our memories, that initial stakes winner for Gun Runner was a graded winner, as Pappacap won the GII Best Pal Stakes, only to be followed up the next...

Some of the most highly anticipated races during the summer racing season are the 'baby' races during the boutique meetings at Saratoga and Del Mar and at Ellis Park, which attract its fair share of high-priced offspring from a variety of top national outfits. Summer Breezes highlights debuting and stakes-entered 2-year-olds at those meetings that have been sourced at the breeze-up sales earlier in the year, with links to their under-tack previews. Here are the horses entered for the final program of the season Monday at Ellis Park: Monday, August...

Society (Gun Runner) stalked and pounced her way to a powerful victory in Saturday's 'Win and You're In' GI Ballerina Handicap at the Spa. Off as the 7-2 third choice, the speedy Peter Blum homebred was content to track in second beneath Tyler Gaffalione--something that she hadn't successfully demonstrated in her previous 13 starts--as 'TDN Rising Star' Munnys Gold (Munnings) sped through fractions of :22.65 and :44.82. Society revved up with a flashy move to take over approaching the quarter pole and turned for home with authority while racing in...

Don Alberto homebred Senza Parole (f, 2, Gun Runner--Senza Te, by Street Cry {Ire}) became the 14th 'TDN Rising Star' for her superstar young sire with a tour-de-force victory in the Saratoga opener Friday. The 7-2 chance flashed good early speed between horses right out of the gate from her inside draw, but was content to slot back into third beneath Irad Ortiz, Jr. through an opening quarter in :22.52. She began to make a flashy move rounding the far turn and took over while in hand approaching the quarter pole....

7th-SAR, $100k, Msw, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, post time: 3:54 p.m. ET Chad Brown saddles a pair of debutantes in this spot, led by Klaravich Stables' $310,000 Keeneland September purchase LEANER AND MEANER (Munnings). The Jan. 28 foal's dam Revitalized (Uncle Mo) was acquired for $360,000 with this filly in utero at the 2021 Keeneland November Sale and is a daughter of 2011 GIII Virginia Oaks heroine Excited (Giant's Causeway), the dam of SW & MGSP Thrilled (Uncle Mo) and GSP Beside Herself (Uncle Mo). The stakes-winning third dam Path...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, which opened Monday with figures on pace for a third year of records, concluded Tuesday with an electric session which demolished the sale's previous high for gross, average, and median. At the close of business Tuesday, 154 yearlings sold for $82,160,000--highest ever in the auction's 103-year history, surpassing the previous record of $75,055,000 set last year. The average of $533,506 also improved on the 2023 record figure of $487,370, while the median of $425,000 bettered the...

Hip 146, a colt by boom sire Gun Runner bred on a cross over Tapit mares that has proved a rich source of high-class runners, was hammered down to Coolmore and Peter Brant for $1.9 million to skip to the head of class during the first hour of trade during Tuesday's second session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale. The Feb. 27 foal was consigned by Lane's End on behalf of the colt's breeder, Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Equine, and hails from one of her best families. Hip 146 is out...

The second horse through the ring Tuesday night at Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga sale, a Gun Runner filly out of $4.5-million broodmare Pure Clan (Pure Prize), brought a cool $1.5 million from Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm LLC. Consigned as Hip 123 by Gainesway, agent XI, the chestnut filly was bred in Kentucky by Three Chimneys Farm and is a half-sister to Princesa Carolina (Tapit), course record setter in the Dueling Grounds Oaks whose graded placings include the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes. Dam Pure Clan won the GI American...

Hip 75, a Bluewater Sales-consigned Gun Runner colt out of Lady Godiva (Unbridled's Song). was another high-profile purchase for John Stewart's Resolute Bloodstock during the opening session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, as he was extended to $1.7 million after a protracted bidding duel. An Apr. 17 foal, the gray is closely related to GI Clark Handicap winner and sire Leofric, a son of Gun Runner's sire Candy Ride (Arg), and his dam hails from the Peter Blum family of Grade I winners Well Chosen, Telling and this year's dual...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Much like he rides Thoroughbreds, jockey Joel Rosario turned in patient, thorough and well-timed remarks Friday during his induction into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame. Rosario was the closer of the nine-member Class of 2024 at the ceremony at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion. Dominican Republic diplomat and horse owner Jose Singer introduced Rosario, noting that he was the first jockey from their country to be elected to the Hall of Fame. After Singer helped him don his Hall of Fame blazer, Rosario stepped...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.- When Joel Rosario arrived in California as a virtually unknown jockey from the Dominican Republic in 2006, his mission was simple: survive. Eighteen years after his first races at Fairplex and Golden Gate Fields, Rosario will be inducted Friday into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame. He was elected in his first year of eligibility. "I never thought I was going to be where I am today," Rosario said. "I thought I would come here and try to make a living. Riding horses and trying...

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) will host an online 'Stallions for Second Chances Halter Auction' beginning Saturday, July 27 at 8:30 p.m. ET and concluding the evening of Saturday, Aug. 3. The halters of four stallions have been donated by their respective farms: Gun Runner (Three Chimneys); Into Mischief (Spendthrift); Tapit (Gainesway); and Uncle Mo (Coolmore America). Each halter is accompanied by a handcrafted shadowbox made by artisan Matt Martinez of Martinez Woodworks in Lexington, Ky. All proceeds will benefit The TRF Second Chances program, which gives incarcerated individuals the...