2023 Eclipse Awards: Gunite

Gunite put together a championship-caliber campaign in 2023, capturing the Grade 1 Forego over eventual Qatar Racing Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Elite Power and compiling earnings of $1.4 million. For his record, Gunite is a finalist for the Eclipse Award as outstanding male sprinter.

Gunite’s season, which featured three stakes wins, hit a high point in August. He was seeking to turn the tables on nemesis Elite Power in the Forego at Saratoga, a month after the reigning champion sprinter had edged him by a head in the track’s Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap.

Gunite was powerful on the front end in the Forego, setting the pace and going on to win the seven-furlong race in a brisk 1:21.53. He was a 1 3/4-length winner, handing Elite Power his lone loss in 2023.

Gunite’s performance thrilled his connections, breeder and owner Winchell Thoroughbreds, trainer Steve Asmussen, and regular rider Tyler Gaffalione.

:: Full list of 2023 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

“It was a very tough defeat for him in the Vanderbilt and for him not to blink an eye and lay it down again, it proves what a special horse he is,” Asmussen told Daily Racing Form after the Forego. “All he wanted was another chance [against Elite Power] and today he proved how good he is.”

The Forego was the second Grade 1 victory for Gunite, who as a 2-year-old in 2021 had captured the Hopeful at Saratoga. Overall, he is an eight-time stakes winner.

“Gunite is just a very special horse, to race at the level he has for as long as he has and so consistently,” Asmussen told Daily Racing Form.

The Forego win came after Gunite paired Beyer Speed Figures of 108 for his effort in the Vanderbilt and his win in the Aristides in June at Churchill Downs. He also put up triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in his 4-year-old debut, when he won the King Cotton in January at Oaklawn with a 104 and later in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in November, when second to Elite Power with a 107.

Gunite’s eight-race campaign last season also included two starts overseas. He was second to Elite Power in the Group 3 Riyadh Dirt Sprint in February and third by a half-length in the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen in March.

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Gunite “gives us such a great effort all the time,” Asmussen told Daily Racing Form after the Breeders’ Cup. “He’s traveled the world and always runs his race.”

A few days later, it was announced that Gunite would launch a stallion career in Kentucky in 2024, at the Ashford Stud operation of Coolmore. The son of Gun Runner, who is now 5, won 9 of 21 starts in his career for earnings of $2.4 million.

“He was unusual in that he was top class at 2, 3, and 4,” Charlie O’Connor, Ashford’s director of sales, said in a press release announcing the retirement of Gunite. “He was one of the best sprinters in the country and had top Beyer Figures of 108 at both Saratoga and Churchill. He’s a very good-looking horse, and we can’t wait for breeders to see him.”

Gunite is from the stakes-winning Cowboy Cal mare Simple Surprise. He was bred in Kentucky.

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