Gun Runner has Asmussen optimistic ahead of Risen Star

NEW ORLEANS – The Nov. 28 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes has aged well so far. Second-place Mor Spirit has returned to win two graded stakes and ranks among the leading California-based 3-year-olds, while third-place Mo Tom was a convincing winner of the Lecomte Stakes last month at Fair Grounds. Mo Tom is back Saturday for the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes, and even more will be known about the Kentucky Jockey Club with the first- and fourth-place finishers, Airoforce and Gun Runner, also in the Risen Star.

While Airoforce has been preparing for his 3-year-old debut at the Palm Meadows training center in south Florida with Mark Casse (and all has not been ideal; twice the colt had a minor issue with an upper-respiratory infection), Gun Runner has been working up a storm at Fair Grounds for trainer Steve Asmussen and owners Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm.

Gun Runner had his first published workout Jan. 4 and has since worked six times, twice going five furlongs, then logging six-furlong, in-company works in 1:12.60 on Feb. 1 and 1:12.20 on Feb. 8. Those are very strong times for Fair Grounds morning drills, especially this year, when the track has generally been slow during training hours.

“He is extremely athletic, a rare talent under tack with how athletic he is,” said Asmussen. “He travels so good, he moves so pretty. In his training as well, he’s very useful, very exuberant. I love the work he’s put in: solid, very controlled, beautiful work.”

Gun Runner won his debut, a one-turn mile at Churchill, and came right back to win a two-turn, first-level allowance race at Keeneland. He stalked the pace over a sloppy track in the Kentucky Jockey Club and, before the quarter pole, looked like the most likely winner, but when Airoforce came up on his outside, Gun Runner had no final response and slipped back to fourth in the final furlong.

“I think he did show fatigue in the last race,” Asmussen said. “He looked great from about the three-eighths to the eighth pole. I thought he just got a touch tired.”

Gun Runner, a compact, well-balanced chestnut colt, is by Candy Ride and out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Quiet Giant, who won seven of 12 starts and captured the Grade 2 Molly Pitcher around two turns. Asmussen said Gun Runner should only improve with maturity, and from all appearances, that improvement could come this weekend.