Gun Runner-bound Extra Anejo among Asmussen's powerful team

Extra Anejo, among the most exciting 2-year-old maiden winners of 2022, is expected to soon have his first workout since shipping into Fair Grounds from Kentucky in mid-November and could start Dec. 26 in the Gun Runner Stakes at Fair Grounds.

Steve Asmussen, who trains Extra Anejo for Ron Winchell’s Winchell Thoroughbreds, on Tuesday termed the 1 1/16-mile Gun Runner the “most likely” spot for Extra Anejo’s second race.

By Into Mischief out of the Hard Spun mare Superioritycomplex, Extra Anejo was purchased for $1.35 million at a yearling sale in September 2021 and made his lone start Oct. 13 at Keeneland. Racing over Keeneland’s Beard Course at seven furlongs and 184 feet, Extra Anejo cruised to a 9 1/2-length win and galloped out much farther in front of his nearest rival than that.

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He worked five furlongs at Keeneland during Breeders’ Cup week in a modest 1:03, but with a monster gallop-out, and worked twice after being moved to Churchill Downs, the last of those drills on Nov. 15. Extra Anejo was considered a possible runner in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes on Nov. 26 at Churchill, but instead was sent to Fair Grounds.

Asmussen and Winchell won the Gun Runner last year with Epicenter, who went on to finish second in the Kentucky Derby.

On Nov. 28, Grade 1-placed 2-year-old Gulfport arrived at Asmussen’s stable in New Orleans following a freshening after his third-place finish in the Champagne Stakes in New York. Among the fastest 2-year-old colts during June and July, Gulfport finished second to Damon’s Mound in the Saratoga Special and second to the presumptive champion 2-year-old colt Forte in the Grade 1 Hopeful. By Uncle Mo out of Fame and Fortune, by Unbridled’s Song, Gulfport has the pedigree of a route horse and Asmussen said he “will give him the opportunity” to get onto the Triple Crown trail.

Other 2-year-olds of note based with Asmussen in New Orleans include Private Creed, a closing third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, and Red Route One, who was fourth, beaten 1 1/2 lengths, in the Kentucky Jockey Club.

While Private Creed’s five starts have come on turf, Asmussen said the Jimmy Creed colt “deserves a chance on dirt as well as he trains on it.”

Red Route One is a candidate for the Saudi Derby in February and the UAE Derby the following month in Dubai, and could have as a travel companion Gunite. Before finishing fourth in the two-turn Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, Gunite had won four of five racing around one turn, with his lone loss a second to Jack Christopher in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens. Asmussen said Gunite would be considered for one-turn races in Saudi Arabia and Dubai.

Asmussen should have three leading older female dirt route horses for 2023 in Clairiere, Society, and Pauline’s Pearl. Winner of the Grade 1 La Troienne in May, Pauline’s Pearl hasn’t raced since July but now has logged three half-mile workouts at Fair Grounds.

Clairiere, a gallant second in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, also is bedded down at Fair Grounds but has no major goals until later in the spring of 2023. Society, who set the pace and faded to seventh in the BC Distaff after winning the Grade 1 Cotillion, is getting a spell at a farm before resuming training.

Also on winter break before gearing up for 2023 campaigns are the second- and third-place finishers in the BC Filly and Mare Sprint, Echo Zulu and Wicked Halo.

And, finally, 2-year-old filly Grand Love shipped from Keeneland to Fair Grounds after a fading sixth in the BC Juvenile Fillies and will be pointed toward the series of 3-year-old filly dirt route races early next year in New Orleans.

“There’s no doubt in my mind she’s a route horse,” said Asmussen. “She just needs to be stronger.”

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