Gun Runner to stand for US$65,000 on SH time, tantalising Golden Slipper bonus on offer

Cover image courtesy of EquiSport

In the last handful of years, there’s been an explosion in the popularity of breeding to Southern Hemisphere time. Some of the top stallions in the world now service in their respective off-seasons, including Frankel (GB), Kingman (GB), Siyouni (Fr) and Lope De Vega (Ire).

These are household stallions now, each having reached spidery heights in Australia with their offspring, and so much so that the commitment of sending mares on the long haul to Europe has, for many Australasian breeders, been worth the effort.

This spring, there will be a new name in the mix. The rich, robust chestnut that is Gun Runner (USA), a resident of Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky, will stand to Southern Hemisphere time. This is a horse being mentioned in the same breath as Danzig (USA) and Mr Prospector (USA), so it’s worth paying attention. The farm is also offering a AU$500,000 bonus to any progeny of Gun Runner that wins the Golden Slipper.

Gun Runner was American Horse of the Year in 2017 and a G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner. Trained throughout by Steve Asmussen, who knows a good horse when he sees one, the son of Candy Ride (Arg) won close to US$16 million (AU$24 million), a chunk of that via the Pegasus World Cup and six Grade 1 races.

The Pegasus was a spectacular swansong for Gun Runner, who had consistently run into the likes of Arrogate (USA) during his career, that horse defeating him to second in the G1 Dubai World Cup just a year before.

But Gun Runner was a horse that absorbed defeat, thrived on travel and withstood every challenge that arose during his career. Asmussen, at one point, said the hardest thing about handling him was being patient, not asking too much of a valuable colt that looked like handling anything.

“He’s an old-school horse,” the trainer said. “He likes pressure and he likes things to matter,” which history has found will often make for a great stallion.

Gun Runner raised the roof with his first crop, as if listening to all the expectations that followed him to Three Chimneys Farm in 2018. It might be a record, but he produced six individual Grade 1 winners from his first book of 127 foals, achieved off a stud fee of US$70,000 (AU$105,000).

They included Echo Zulu (USA), who now is a dual Grade 1 winner, and Gunite (USA), a winner of the Hopeful S. Echo Zulu was a Champion juvenile filly, while subsequent top-shelf winners included Cyberknife (USA) and last year’s Preakness winner Early Voting (USA).

This was rare air for a stallion so young, something that is not lost on Doug Cauthen, the vice chairman of Three Chimneys Farm.

“He’s been spectacular, and everyone here is feeling blessed to have him at Three Chimneys,” Cauthen said, speaking to TTR AusNZ. “But we think the potential to continue this, and build on it, is right there in front of him. Who he’s as good as, we’ll find out in five or 10 years’ time, but he’s certainly been exceptional so far.”

In its past, Three Chimneys has stood the calibre of Silver Charm (USA), Genuine Risk (USA) and Rahy (USA). But it has been said that Gun Runner is restoring the glory days of Dynaformer (USA) and Seattle Slew (USA), both of whom stood on the farm along the Old Frankfort Pike.

“Gun Runner is definitely our most exciting horse at stud since Seattle Slew,” Cauthen said. “We hope he can go on and exceed the heights of some of those great horses we’ve had.”

Physically, there's hardly anything to fault about this stallion. He's a masculine type with plenty of intelligence, good energy and he's a great breeder.

“He’s a beautifully balanced horse who moves really well when you’re looking at him,” Cauthen said. “His motion and movement is exceptional, and you saw that when he raced. You see it in a lot of his progeny too; they’re very efficient.”

Gun Runner was Champion Northern American first-crop sire in every category in his debut year. He was also the leading sire of 3-year-olds in 2022, and with so few crops on the track, he has already proved a dazzling addition to the Northern American sire ranks.

Which is why, this upcoming spring in Australasia, he will be available to Southern Hemisphere time.

Targeting Australia

American stallions have a long record of working well in Australia. Think Street Cry (Ire) and More Than Ready (USA), to name just two.

However, it’s fair to say that sending Australian mares up to American stallions on Southern Hemisphere time hasn’t been as widely uptaken as those mares heading up to Europe. It might have something to do with the dirt versus turf argument, or freight logistics.

However, that may change when it comes to Gun Runner, whom Three Chimneys is hoping will attract anywhere between 20 and 40 Southern Hemisphere mares this spring.

They are offering the horse at US$65,000 (AU$98,000), which is a sizeable discount on what he is commanding locally, and slightly less than the US$75,000 (AU$110,000) he commanded last year on Southern Hemisphere covers.

“The goal is to make him appealing,” Cauthen said. “He’s consistently bred to Southern Hemisphere time, but last year and this year, we’ve really tried to open him up more. He’s bred a solid book in the past without it being a big book, because we’re not looking for a big book. We’re looking for quality.”

As such, this Southern Hemisphere spring won’t be the first time Gun Runner has been available for southern breeders, but it is the first time that Three Chimneys is actively promoting the horse as available. And that is because the farm has firm faith in the horse’s ability to work in Australia, possibly more than any other international jurisdiction.

“We believe the Australian market is the strongest of the Southern Hemisphere markets,” Cauthen said. “While we want all of the Southern Hemisphere to breed to the horse, we feel like targeting Australia is merited because of the strength of the industry there.”

So what is that belief sitting on? Is it precocity, speed or sprinting, or something else?

“I think speed, above all else,” Cauthen said. “When you look at speed, horses like Society, who just broke a track record for 7f, and Echo Zulu and Gunite... those were Grade 1 winners at two who continued to be Grade 1 winners as older horses.

“Then look at Gun Runner himself. He was so forward in his races, so there’s a great amount of speed that we think will cross over and be appreciated in the market. Gun Runner loves adding speed on speed. When we’ve bred the fast mares, good things have happened.”

There has been a scattering of Australian or Australian-bound mares visiting Gun Runner in the last year. One of them was Originator (USA), a stakes-placed mare by Artie Schiller (USA) who went to the stallion and came down to Australia in February.

Originator is one of a number of American-sourced mares that were bought for a Gun Runner cover and will head, or are heading, down to Australia for the spring.

However, the more prolific example is the Golden Slipper winner Estijaab (Snitzel), who visited Gun Runner and is on her way back to Australia right now. The Emirates Park-owned mare, who also won the G2 Reisling S. at about the same time as Gun Runner was heading to Three Chimneys, will be a brilliant advertisement for the stallion in these parts.

Emirates Park also sent One More Honey (Onemorenomore), a winner of the G2 Sweet Embrace S. Both mares seem to fit that picture perfectly of high-achieving early speed.

The Golden Slipper angle

Three Chimneys knows its target market in Australia, and part of that target market is the G1 Golden Slipper.

The farm is also offering the AU$500,000 bonus to any progeny of Gun Runner that wins the Golden Slipper, and it will be a good start with Estijaab, whose association with the race is already so good.

“Like the Kentucky Derby or any of these great races, just getting runners in the field is the hardest part,” Cauthen said. “Time will tell but we think it’s a legitimate possibility for Gun Runner to get horses into the Slipper, therefore we should offer a legitimate bonus.

“Australian breeders have bred to him in the past, as have other Southern Hemisphere breeders. We’re trying to build on that this year, and when good things happen, it builds more. It takes time, we understand that, but we’re enthusiastic and positive about this because we’re enthusiastic and positive about the horse.”

At Emirates Park, the team is readying for at least two foals by Gun Runner from two prolific mares, and both were committed to the stallion long before any mention of a Golden Slipper bonus.

Bryan Carlson, the general manager of Emirates Park, said the decision to use Gun Runner was based on a few things.

“He was a stallion I liked even before he had runners,” he said, speaking on Thursday to TTR AusNZ. “From his first crop, he's had six Grade 1 winners, and they haven’t had a stallion like that in America for probably 30-plus years.

“He’s a very exciting stallion, and for a stallion of his quality and calibre, he was very good value for us when we used him last year. He roughly equated to about AU$110,000, which is significantly cheaper than a lot of our own stallions here in Australia.”

For Carlson, Estijaab and One More Honey represented that Red Ransom (USA) sireline that would bounce back nicely to Gun Runner. However, the blazingly obvious was that the Three Chimneys stallion is punching out results that put him at the top of the world right now.

“He’s up there with Frankel and Dubawi on statistics,” Carlson said. “He was extraordinary value for our two mares, despite the costs of shipping them each way.”

Carlson is quite concerned in Australia about the shrinking, ageing gene pool of elite stallions. It’s one of the reasons why Estijaab and One More Honey were sent to Gun Runner.

“We are running out of stallions very quickly in Australia,” he said. “If we can afford it, we will be shipping mares internationally to get that outcross. This is an issue the industry needs to face in the near future. Some of our leading stallions are pushing 19 years of age. What else is coming through?”

Carlson added that he, like Doug Cauthen, feels there is no reason for Gun Runner not to work out in Australia.

“He’s the Fappiano line of Mr Prospector,” he said. “They’ve worked on turf in the US and Gun Runner has already produced good 2-year-old Group 1 winners.

“It was very ideal for Estijaab and One More Honey to go there. The Red Ransom cross has already worked and both mares are good types. The matings are very commercial, and hopefully the progeny can run on the racetrack as well.”

No speed limits

American bloodstock agent Case Clay, whose father founded Three Chimneys Farm in the early 1970s, has been spruiking Gun Runner in these parts since at least January.

Clay represents a number of Australian interests, including Arrowfield Stud, and in January he told us that Gun Runner was an ideal outcross, which will suit so much of the Danehill (USA)-heavy stock that saturates Australian breeding.

He added that Gun Runner, from a Giant’s Causeway (USA) mare, represents a sireline that is already proven in Australia.

This week, with such good mares as Estijaab already confirmed in foal to the stallion, we asked Clay about whether Gun Runner, a famous dirt horse, will work on the Australian turf, and if that's even a relevant discussion any more.

“The honest answer to that is he’s yet to have his chance,” Clay said. “They’ve (the progeny) done so well on the dirt up here in America that not many people have been breeding for a grass horse with him, or trying them on grass. If you look at his statistics so far, it’s not like he’s been tried on the grass and hasn’t done well; it’s that he hasn’t had his shot.”

Clay mentions Street Boss (USA) as an obvious example in this discussion.

“People might have been questioning that about Street Boss before he had his success, and he’s certainly had his share of success down there in Australia.”

Street Boss was an obvious dirt horse that has sired in Australia such Group winners as Anamoe, Hanseatic, The Quarterback, Arcaded and Elite Street. Some of this success is indebted to his shuttling, however, which he has consistently done since 2009.

It takes a little more effort for the overseas-based stallions to cut the same cloth, and largely because they won’t have the same numbers on the ground. But will it matter?

“Gun Runner can definitely work in Australia,” Clay said. “As he expands into the Australian market, with his offspring’s speed and precocity, I think he can go from strength to strength. I was at the Magic Millions in January and at the Easter Sale in April, and there were quite a few breeders interested in him, and specifically due to that speed and precocity.”

Clay is suggesting that interested breeders in Australia either send up ideal mares to Kentucky, or source American mares in the US market, specifically with Gun Runner in mind.

“There’s no delineation as to which way is the right way to do it,” he said. “Estijaab is in foal to Gun Runner. She came up to Kentucky and went back down, but equally, we have had a number of mares bought in the US that are in foal to Gun Runner and are now on their way down to Australia.”

If any American sire is going to work in these parts, it might be this one. Gun Runner has had a Mr Prospector-like start to his stud career, and there aren’t many horses that can claim that.

The days of worrying that dirt sires won’t work in Australia are probably faltering, given the example of Street Boss and, lately, Justify (USA), who will be Champion First Season Sire in Australia this season.

“Gun Runner’s start to stud has been pretty ridiculous… six Grade 1 winners from his first crop and a 2-year-old Champion,” Clay said. “It’s exciting to be trying to get as many as we can to him down in Australia. It’s a fun exercise and I don’t see any reason why it won’t work.

“If they (the progeny) took time to develop and were longer-distance horses, that would be one thing, but they’re not. They are precocious speed horses, and for that reason, I think Gun Runner has a calling card for Australia.”