Gun Runner, Justify look to add Kentucky Derby winner to sire accomplishments

Gun Runner and Justify were both brilliant on the track, earning Horse of the Year honors. For those accomplishments, they will be inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame this summer. First, though, they’ll try to add another accomplishment to the brilliant start to their respective stud careers, as both have Kentucky Derby entrants this weekend.

Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year standing at Three Chimneys Farm, is represented by Derby second choice Sierra Leone, winner of the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes. Justify, the 2018 Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year based at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, is the sire of Blue Grass runner-up Just a Touch, as well as Just Steel.

Gun Runner, by Candy Ride, was a 10-time graded stakes winner, with four of his six Grade 1 wins coming in his 2017 championship campaign. He got off to a smashing start as a stallion, breaking the North American freshman sire earnings record with his first 2-year-olds in 2021, led by Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and champion Echo Zulu. The following year, Early Voting emerged from that crop to give Gun Runner his first classic winner in the Preakness Stakes. Gun Runner led the second- and third-crop sire lists the past two years, and was a creditable third on the overall leading sire list in 2023. Sierra Leone is one of eight individual Grade 1 winners to date.

Justify, who did not race beyond his Triple Crown sweep, is already the sire of six Grade/Group 1 winners internationally from his first two crops. After he checked in third on the 2022 freshman sire list, he had a stunning year in 2023, leading not only the second-crop list, but also the overall 2-year-old sire list. His runners in the United States last season were led by Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and champion Just F Y I, who runs in Friday’s Kentucky Oaks.

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