Chip Honcho gives Asmussen third Gun Runner triumph
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Steve Asmussen, who trained Gun Runner, won the $100,000 Gun Runner Stakes at Fair Grounds for the third time in the race’s five-year history when Chip Honcho ground his way to a three-quarters-length victory on Saturday.
Chip Honcho in his third start made his two-turn debut while racing in blinkers for the first time, Asmussen adding the equipment following a win because Chip Honcho ducked into the gap where the backstretch chute meets the main track last out at Churchill Downs.
Breaking alertly Saturday and getting to the outside from post 2 after Crown the Buckeye crossed over and cleared to the lead, Chip Honcho failed to truly settle while stalking the pacesetter from second down the backstretch.
Chip Honcho closed the gap on Crown the Buckeye going around the second bend of this 1 1/16-mile contest for 2-year-olds, but at the quarter pole, Crown the Buckeye pushed forward again, opening daylight on Chip Honcho. Crown the Buckeye, another horse making his two-turn debut, still led by more than a length reaching the furlong grounds, but thereupon began shortening stride, going starkly into fade mode at the sixteenth pole. No one behind him closed with any spark, though, and only in the dying strides did Chip Honcho plug along to gain a final advantage.
Liberty National, the 6-5 favorite off a mere maiden route win at Churchill, got squeezed back to last at the start but had worked his way into a viable position past the three-furlong marker and into the homestretch. He had a fast 46.66 half-mile split at which to run and enervated horses ahead of him but finished tepidly, nodding out Crown the Buckeye for second.
Only a neck farther back in fourth came Quality Mischief, who in his most recent outing had earned a lowly 57 Beyer Speed Figure capturing an off-turf Horseshoe Indianapolis maiden race. Very Connected was fifth, beating only Mister Punch, who was eased before walking off the racecourse.
Arabia Wild was scratched Saturday morning, Mesquite sometime Saturday afternoon. The Gun Runner is part of Churchill Downs' Road to the Kentucky Derby, and the first five finishers earned 10, 5, 3, 2, and 1 qualifying points toward the Derby.
Chip Honcho ($9.80 as the second choice) clocked 1:44.78 over a fast track and required the better part of 7 1/2 seconds to cover his final half-furlong in a race that shaped fast early and middle, very slow late. Asmussen trains the colt for Leland Ackerly Racing, and Chip Honcho, a robust specimen bred in Kentucky by Venneri Racing and Tony Fanticola, is by Connect out of the Magician mare My Miss Rose.
Not very fast, not at all definitive, but a win in his stakes debut – and Derby qualifying points – for Chip Honcho.
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