Three Chimneys

by Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale moved into the first of two Book 3 sesssions Thursday with continued competitive bidding and figures through four days of the auction still tracking ahead of 2021 statistics. For the session, 248 head grossed $20,988,500. The average of $84,631 was up 6.7% from the opening session of the 2021 Book 3 section, while the median remained constant at $65,000. The session's buy-back rate was 26.63%. It was 23.64% a year ago. Jody Huckabay, bidding on...

Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg})--the leading sire on the general sire list by percentage of Grade I winners, Grade I horses, graded stakes winners, graded stakes horses, black-type winners and black-type horses from starters--anchors the stallion roster at Three Chimneys Farm, where he will cover mares at a private fee for 2023. Building on his leading freshman sire campaign in 2021, the 9-year-old is the sire of 11 stakes winners this season, including eight at the graded level and four Grade I scorers, including 'TDN Rising Star' and GI Longines...

Steve Cauthen sat in the shade of Barn 42 at the Four Star Sales consignment Tuesday afternoon, basking not in the memory of his glory days as a Hall of Fame jockey, but in quiet celebration after selling one of the top-priced yearlings of the day at the Keeneland September Sale. The colt, a flashy son of Sharp Azteca out of the stakes-placed mare She's Roughin It (Forest Camp), sold for $250,000 to Jerry Namy and Garry Simms. "This is as exciting as winning a race," Cauthen declared. "When you...

2nd-Saratoga, $101,850, Msw, 8-27, 2yo, 1m (off turf), 1:38.44, ft, 6 1/2 lengths. FUNTASTIC AGAIN (c, 2, Funtastic--Repeta, by Broken Vow), seventh on debut after chasing the pace and fading late over Belmont's turf course July 1, drew in as a main track only entry Saturday and got the 9-5 nod for his second career start. Despite being difficult through the loading process and breaking last of the field, Funtastic Again, wearing blinkers for the first time, rushed up in a three-wide move to assume command seven furlongs from home....

6th-Saratoga, $105,000, Msw, 8-21, 2yo, f, 6 1/2f, 1:17.93, ft, 4 3/4 lengths. GRAND LOVE (f, 2, Gun Runner--Grand Prayer {SW, $145,170}, by Grand Slam) continued the eternal hot streak for her superstar second-crop sire with a speedy debut score Sunday at Saratoga. Tipping her hand with a half-mile gate breeze in :47 2/5 (4/143) over this track July 31, the Three Chimneys homebred was let go as the 47-10 fourth choice and broke like a rocket from her inside post. Quickly two lengths clear, the bay showed the way...

5th-DMR, $80k, Msw, 2yo, 5f, 7:04p.m. ET Hronis Racing LLC, West Point Thoroughbreds, and Woodford Racing LLC have partnered up to unveil the latest blue-blooded colt by Justify, this one named HAWKER. Shelling out a cool $675,000 for him at KEESEP, his pedigree warrants the implied expectations: out of GSP Flaming Heart (Touch Gold), it makes Hawker a half to GISP & MGSW Commissioner (A.P. Indy), GISP & GSW Laugh Track (Distorted Humor), and to the dam of MGISW Vino Rosso (Curlin). All three of the colt's closest female line...

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,...