2023 Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Red Route One

Red Route One

Gun Runner – Red House, by Tapit

Bred in Kentucky by Winchell Thoroughbreds

The colors of the Winchell Thoroughbreds operation have been carried by two of the most prominent stallions of the last quarter-century: Perennial standout Tapit, who stands at Gainesway Farm, and young phenom Gun Runner, who stands at Three Chimneys Farm. Those lines have proven a solid cross, and combine again with multiple graded stakes-placed Red Route One. The colt, from a classic family on both sides of his pedigree, will look to punch his ticket to the Kentucky Derby on Saturday in the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park.

Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year, set an earnings record for a North American freshman sire with his first crop, led by 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and Eclipse Award champion Echo Zulu. That first crop went on to produce a classic winner in Preakness Stakes victor Early Voting.

Gun Runner also is the sire, to date, of Grade 1 winners Cyberknife, Gunite, Society, and Taiba and graded stakes winners Pappacap, Runninsonofagun, Sixtythreecaliber, and Wicked Halo.

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Several of Gun Runner’s top runners have been campaigned or co-campaigned by the Winchells, whose broodmare band includes a large number of mares by Tapit, their three-time leading sire and prominent classic sire. Crossing Gun Runner over a Tapit mare has already, in a handful of years, proven a successful nick.

Society and Wicked Halo are both out of Tapit mares, and Red Run, a full brother to Red Route One, won the Bob Bork Texas Turf Mile and was third in the off-turf American Derby. Another 3-year-old of this year, Louisiana Derby runner-up Disarm, is by Gun Runner and out of a Tapit mare.

Red House, who was unraced, is out of Grade 2 winner and Broodmare of the Year Fun House, making her a full sister to Eclipse champion Untapable, winner of the 2014 Kentucky Oaks, Breeders’ Cup Distaff, and more in the Winchell colors.

Red House also is a half-sister to Paddy O’Prado, third in the 2010 Kentucky Derby before going on to become a Grade 1 winner on turf.

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