HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – That they knew this day would come did not make it any easier. On Sunday, shortly before 9 a.m. at Gulfstream Park, Gun Runner was led onto a Sallee horse van that would take him to an airplane and on to Kentucky, where he will soon begin life as a stallion. It also took him away from the people who had cared for him on the racetrack every day for nearly three straight years. His trainer, Steve Asmussen, had said his goodbyes earlier in the morning before hustling off to a morning flight back to his string of horses at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. He didn’t want to stick around for the denouement. “That would be like watching Santa take your presents,” he said. It was top assistant Scott Blasi who ultimately put the shank on Gun Runner, took him out of his home for the past 1 1/2 weeks - a stall in the barn of local trainer Ralph Nicks - and walked him once around the shedrow en route to the van. As groom Idelberto Gutierrez and hot walker Juan Gonzalez looked on, Blasi stopped briefly just shy of the van’s ramp to let photographers get one last shot of Gun Runner. Blasi had put sunglasses on to hide his eyes. He gave Gun Runner a quick kiss on the cheek, then walked him onto the van. He exited a few moments later, and walked quickly to a stall in which he had kept barn supplies. He grabbed a paper towel and dabbed his eyes, still hidden by his sunglasses. Then he grabbed a pitchfork and started mucking out the stall that Gun Runner had just vacated. “Staying busy,” Blasi offered. His voice caught. “It’s hard,” he said. Blasi was not scheduled to return to Fair Grounds until Monday. He came here with the best horse in the world, and departed with great memories. “He takes you places most people read about,” said Blasi, who was at Gun Runner’s side for all of his starts, from his debut at Churchill Downs in September 2015, to the Kentucky Derby in 2016, to the Dubai World Cup in 2017, and to his final two wins, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar and the Pegasus World Cup here Saturday. “I’ve been really blessed to be around horses that are different. They breathe different air. They’re capable of doing things on big days that others can’t. He’s super, an amazing horse. It’s going to really hit me when I go back to New Orleans and he’s not in that stall anymore.” Gun Runner left for his new life at co-owner Three Chimneys Farm at the top of his racing game. His victory Saturday in the $16.3 million Pegasus World Cup was his 12th win in 19 starts, and for it he got a Beyer Speed Figure of 119, the best of his career and his seventh straight race in this country in which he got at least a 110; he likely reached that fig in his final eight starts, but Beyer figures are not produced for Dubai. “I don’t know if I ever wanted anything more,” Asmussen said of the Pegasus. “Craving the adoration that’s been shown to him since he won the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the fan base he’s built up for three years, the fan base thrilled to see him win in that style. What an exclamation point. He won the Breeders’ Cup, Horse of the Year on Thursday, then wins the world’s richest horse race on Saturday.” Asmussen was standing far enough away from Blasi that his long-time assistant was out of earshot. At the time, the van pick-up was still 90 minutes away. Asmussen had arrived here Wednesday, several days after Gun Runner had departed New Orleans with Blasi, Gutierrez, and Gonzalez so Gun Runner could have his final workout at Gulfstream. “It ain’t hit him yet,” Asmussen said of Blasi. “It hit me in New Orleans, when I walked by his stall and it was empty. You can’t think of anything else. You can’t not think about it.” A little more than an hour later, representatives of Three Chimneys began to gather at Nicks’s barn for the handoff. Blasi said that staff at Three Chimneys were thorough and detailed, including making sure to obtain the same hay and feed to which Gun Runner has been accustomed to help with the transition to his new life on the farm. Among those who arrived were Doug Cauthen, the vice chairman of Three Chimneys, along with chief operating officer Chris Baker and Sandy Hatfield, the farm’s stallion manager. Cauthen was looking forward to Gun Runner beginning his stud duties, but was still basking in the glow of the Pegasus. “I wanted him to win for all the commercial reasons, but I really wanted it for him,” Cauthen said. Cauthen said that Gun Runner, a son of Candy Ride, is booked “to 150 mares at the moment.” He said that number could rise slightly for suitable mares suddenly retired in coming weeks. The transition period from racehorse to stallion is accelerated for a horse retired from racing now as opposed to, say, after the Breeders’ Cup. “The shed’s going to open in two weeks,” Cauthen said. Hatfield “will put him through the ropes,” Cauthen said. “He’ll be test-bred. She’ll teach him. It’s a whole new process,” Cauthen said. “Sandy and Chris Baker have done it a lot.” For a horse used to the routine of the racetrack, “he’ll be eased into a small paddock, which has a great chilling effect on a horse,” Cauthen said. But he’ll still get plenty of exercise, because when breeding season begins next month, “he’ll be breeding three times a day,” Cauthen said. Gun Runner certainly will have plenty of visitors. After the Fair Grounds meet ends in late March, the Asmussen barn returns to Churchill Downs, which is just 65 miles from Three Chimneys in Midway, Ky. And when Keeneland’s meet opens in April, Three Chimneys is just eight miles away. That’s pretty convenient for Asmussen and Blasi when they want to visit their friend.