2017 Eclipse Awards: Winchell Thoroughbreds-Three Chimneys Farm

The partnership of Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm has campaigned just one horse, but since he’s Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Horse of the Year finalist Gun Runner, the merger can only be considered a rousing success.

Gun Runner won five of six starts in 2017, earning $6,950,700. He alone made the Winchell-Three Chimneys partnership North America’s third-highest-earning owner when Dubai World Cup card starts are taken into account.

Gun Runner’s Classic win at Del Mar topped a campaign that also featured Grade 1 victories in the Woodward Stakes, Whitney Stakes, and Stephen Foster Handicap, and a score in the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap. His four North American Grade 1 wins put Winchell-Three Chimneys in a tie with Juddmonte Farms for the most Grade 1’s among owners in 2017.

Winchell Thoroughbreds was founded by the late doughnut company and restaurant executive Verne Winchell and is operated today by Joan Winchell and her son Ron. Notable recent runners include champion Untapable, Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Tapizar, Kentucky Oaks winner Summerly, and leading commercial sire Tapit.

Winchell Thoroughbreds was an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding breeder in 2014.

Three Chimneys, a prominent racing and breeding operation in central Kentucky for four decades, saw a changing of the guard in 2013, when the Brazilian-based Borges-Torrealba family acquired a controlling interest in the farm.

Since then, runners campaigned by Three Chimneys alone or in partnership include Grade 1 winner Carina Mia and Grade 2 winner Made You Look.

Gun Runner will stand at Three Chimneys’s stallion operation in Midway, Ky., upon his retirement.