Always a Runner’s story is still in its opening chapters, as the filly made just her third career start in winning the Kentucky Oaks. But the tale has been a long time in the making for breeder and co-owner Goncalo Torrealba’s Three Chimneys Farm and co-owner Douglas Scharbauer. Trainer Chad Brown, too, has a longer association with the roots for the filly, who looks to remain unbeaten in her next chapter in Friday’s Grade 1 Acorn Stakes at Saratoga. It’s been more than a decade since Torrealba acquired a controlling interest in the Clay family’s Three Chimneys Farm in November 2013. Torrealba, who established Haras TNT in his native Brazil, had become a prominent player in American racing after previously partnering with Three Chimneys, founded in 1972. Meanwhile, a year later in 2014, Scharbauer was making his own moves. He had become involved in racing through the lifelong love of horses shared by his parents and farm founders, Clarence and Dorothy Scharbauer. After Dorothy’s passing in 2005 and Clarence’s death in 2014, Douglas purchased and took over their Valor Farm in Texas, maintaining it as a major stallion station in the state while also involved in bloodstock in Kentucky. While these moves were going on, a Candy Ride colt had been born in the spring of 2013 in Kentucky and went on to race for Three Chimneys and Winchell Thoroughbreds in partnership. Gun Runner put together a sensational career, winning 12 of 19 starts, with his six Grade 1 wins highlighted by the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Classic to lock up Horse of the Year honors. He returned home to Three Chimneys to begin his stud career the following year and has been nothing short of sensational there as well. After establishing record earnings for a North American freshman sire with his first crop in 2021, he has quickly climbed into the nation’s perennial top three sires, with his 14 Grade 1 winners including Eclipse Award champions Echo Zulu, Sierra Leone, and Super Corredora, and Preakness Stakes winner Early Voting. Sierra Leone and Early Voting were trained by Brown. :: Bet the Belmont Stakes with confidence! Betting Strategies by Mike Beer and David Aragona feature exclusive wager recommendations! “As far as Gun Runner goes, obviously, one of the best sires in the world,” Brown said. “I’ve had plenty of them, fortunately, in my care.” A decade after Gun Runner’s birth, and as he was on the rise as a sire, a filly by the stallion was foaled in January 2023 at Three Chimneys. Her dam was the Three Chimneys homebred Always Carina, a Malibu Moon mare who Brown trained to win twice from six career starts. She was second in the Grade 2 Mother Goose in 2021 at Belmont. Always Carina’s daughter was offered by Three Chimneys, which does sell plenty of young stock in its business model, at the 2024 Keeneland September yearling sale. Scharbauer was among the interested parties – and Three Chimneys let it be known before the filly went through the ring that they would be interested in forming a partnership. Scharbauer agreed before going to $1.05 million to outbid others for the filly. “I’ve got to thank Mr. Scharbauer and his manager, Donny Denton, for answering the phone when I called before she was going to the ring to say, ‘Hey, can we stay in?’ ” Three Chimneys vice chairman Doug Cauthen said. “And kindly, we stayed in, and this partnership brought us here.” Torrealba covets success at the classic level, and Scharbauer himself has a deep family history with America’s biggest races. Dorothy Scharbauer’s father, Fred Turner Jr., won the 1959 Kentucky Derby with Tomy Lee; the Scharbauer family then campaigned Alysheba, winner of the 1987 Derby and Preakness. Douglas Scharbauer said after the Oaks that he has no doubt his parents are watching Always a Runner’s progress and smiling down. “They loved horse racing,” he said. “My father ran Quarter horses most of his life, and he was president of the American Quarter Horse Association in 1975 for one year. But Mother, after her father won the Derby in ’59, she talked my father into coming back to Kentucky and getting back into the Thoroughbred business. Both of my parents just, whether it was Quarter horses or Thoroughbreds, they loved all of it. They loved both of them. It’s always been an excitement with me, and it will never change. I love this sport. I just love it.” Always a Runner’s emergence as a contender for the filly classics for these connections may have appeared quick, as she did not debut until this February. But it was a well-laid plan by Brown following a massive pothole in the road when the filly developed a serious case of pneumonia last fall that did threaten her ability to ever race. “It’s been quite a journey,” Brown said. “This horse came to me last summer, and you could tell right away from the first work that she had unbelievable ability. I have to give a lot of credit to Three Chimneys Farm, the Torrealba family. They bred this horse. I trained her mother.” Brown credited the owners for their patience while the horse dealt with her illness. “[I had to give them] a bad phone call in the fall when she had pneumonia, this filly was struggling. She had a severe case of it, in the clinic for over a month. And everyone was patient. We had a wonderful team of veterinarians that helped her get back.” Always a Runner took her debut on Feb. 6 at Tampa and then stepped up to win the Grade 3 Gazelle on April 4 at Aqueduct, earning the points to contest the Kentucky Oaks, coming in as the least experienced entrant in what was regarded as a wide-open field this year. “This filly, to be in the condition that she’d been in during her 2‑year‑old year, and not to run for the first time until after she turned 3, and then to find out she’s got the ability she’s got, it just – I mean, her pedigree certainly lends itself to that,” Scharbauer reflected. “But having the kind of trouble that Chad had with her as a 2‑year‑old, and wanting to be sure she stayed healthy, then to come back as a 3‑year‑old and [go to the Oaks] after just two outs, I think it’s incredible . . . I have never seen this. I’ve never seen it happen like this.” In the 152nd Kentucky Oaks, run under the lights in prime time on May 1, Always a Runner and Jose Ortiz ran down Meaning – another daughter of Gun Runner – in a long drive and swept to a 1 1/4-length victory. “This was an amazing ride, obviously, but a well‑laid plan for a long time by Chad,” Cauthen said. “Like he said, there were a lot of bumps in the road . . . So just seeing that process and then seeing it happen was pretty amazing. And then a wonderful trip and amazing ride and a great partner.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.