Three Chimneys

Gun Runner, the runaway leading second-crop sire in North America, will be available to cover a limited book of mares on Southern Hemisphere time in 2022, Three Chimneys has announced. The son of Candy Ride (Arg) will be available to breeders in the Southern Hemisphere at a fee of US$75,000 (AU$109,700). Since retiring to the breeding shed in 2018, Gun Runner has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the U.S. stallion ranks and with only two crops of racing age, he is already the sire of 12 stakes winners, spearheaded by...

4th-Churchill Downs, $105,843, Msw, 6-3, 2yo, f, 5 1/2f, 1:04.73, ft, 2 1/4 lengths. WONDER WHEEL (f, 2, Into Mischief--Wonder Gal {MSW & MGISP, $904,800}, by Tiz Wonderful) was sent off the narrow 2-1 second choice in this unveiling but put in a gutsy, professional performance to graduate. Not the fastest off the break, Wonder Wheel tracked from fifth and quickly made up ground coming through the turn, her march carrying her four wide into the stretch. Second at the head of the lane, the $275,000 KEESEP grad confronted a...

Three Chimneys Farm's stallion sensation Gun Runner set a new record for progeny earnings by a first-crop sire last year, headlined by six stakes winners including champion Echo Zulu, but the striking son of Candy Ride (Arg) was just getting started in 2021. When Klaravich Stables' Early Voting captured the GI Preakness S., Gun Runner added a fifth tally to his remarkable count of Grade I winners from his first crop. Early Voting's win at Pimlico was worth celebrating at Three Chimneys for more reasons than one. Not only did...

Two weeks ago, when I wrote the column "First Crops Yield Derby and Oaks Winners," I'd expected to write about Taiba (Gun Runner) and Secret Oath (Arrogate), the two I'd liked the most in the Gl Kentucky Derby and Gl Kentucky Oaks, respectively. I'd spoken mainly about those two on Steve Byk's popular SiriusXM program "At the Races," and my feeling was that Gun Runner in particular was on a trajectory to get a first-crop Classic winner. His start at stud had been exceptional with his first juveniles, and the...

Most of us have voted early, and voted often, when it comes to the biggest impact recently made by a new stallion--and now, it seems, we've celebrated his official inauguration. Because a Classic winner for Gun Runner rounds out the narrative that so excited everybody last year, when his first juveniles showed such startling speed and precocity relative to his own Horse of the Year campaign, around two turns as a 4-year-old. Sure, Gun Runner himself managed to win his first two (of three) juvenile starts, and then added the...

The first mares bred to Fortune Ticket (Candy Ride {Arg}-Quiet Giant, by Giant's Causeway) and Son of Thunder (Uncle Mo-Chattertown, by Speightstown) have been confirmed in foal via press release from Climax Stallions. Fortune Ticket, the full-brother to Horse of the Year and #1 two-year-old sire Gun Runner, is standing his first season at Anchor and Hope Farm in Maryland. On the board in four of six lifetime starts with two wins, he sold for $27,000 two years ago at KEENOV. Son of Thunder, the full-brother to the late Laoban,...

In the face of an end run in the Kentucky legislature, The Jockey Club will rescind its 140 mare cap for stallions, the organization announced in a press release Thursday morning. "The Jockey Club announced today that it is rescinding the following italicized language in Rule 14C of The Jockey Club's Principal Rules and Requirements of the American Studbook that addresses limitations to the total number of mares bred per stallion: The total number of broodmares bred per individual stallion whose year of birth is 2020 or thereafter shall not exceed 140...

In an attempt to get around a controversial rule by The Jockey Club (TJC) that mandates that stallions born from 2020 onward will only be allowed to cover up to 140 mares, the Speaker of Kentucky's House of Representatives on Feb. 14 co-filed a bill that would prohibit "a registrar of Thoroughbreds" from restricting "the number of mares that can be bred to a stallion or otherwise refuse to register any foal based upon the number of mares bred to the stallion." In addition, the measure would empower the Kentucky...

A short yearling filly by Gun Runner topped a day of lively trade during the consignor preferred session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Winter Mixed Sale Tuesday in Central Florida when bringing a final bid of $275,000 from Mike Hall of Breeze Easy, LLC. The Florida-bred youngster was one of six yearlings to bring six figures during the session. In all, 143 head sold during the preferred session for a total of $3,074,300. The average was up 12.2% from a year ago when 99 head grossed $1,896,300 and averaged...

by Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, delayed a day due to last week's blizzard, took some time to find its footing, but gained in strength throughout Tuesday's opening session to end the day with figures up compared to its 2020 opening session. "We are very pleased with the way things ended up," said Keeneland's vice president of sales Tony Lacy. "We were expecting a very solid day. There was some nice quality, especially towards the end. And that is...

A no-guarantee season to record-setting first-crop sire Gun Runner will be auctioned off at the conclusion of the opening session of next month's Keeneland January Sale Jan. 10, with all proceeds to benefit victims of deadly tornadoes that struck Western Kentucky earlier this month. "It is unimaginable the damage and suffering wreaked upon so many of the communities and good people of Western Kentucky," said Three Chimneys Chairman Goncalo Torrealba. "Three Chimneys, our partner Ron Winchell, and the entire Thoroughbred horse industry share the grief of those whose lives have...

Season 5 of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame's live webcam series Foal Patrol will debut online at www.foalpatrol.com Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022. Season 5 will feature in-foal mares at Claiborne Farm, Gainesway Farm, Safari North at Pauls Mill Farm, Three Chimneys Farm and Old Tavern Farm in New York. The participants are MGISW Elate (Medaglia d'Oro) at Claiborne, who is carrying her second foal by Speightstown; Gainesway's Spanish Bunny (Unusual Heat), who is in foal to Uncle Mo; Traveling Tiger (Candy Ride {Arg}), in foal to...