Gun Runner offspring go one-two in Haskell

Horse of the Year Gun Runner continued the white-hot start to his stud career by sweeping the exacta in the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes on Saturday at Monmouth, with Cyberknife edging Taiba by a head.

Both colts were Grade 1 winners earlier this season for Gun Runner, co-campaigned by Winchell Thoroughbreds and current residence Three Chimneys Farm of Midway, Ky. Gun Runner set an earnings record for a North American freshman sire last year and led the overall 2-year-old sire list. The stallion is the sire of five Grade 1 winners, including Eclipse Award champion Echo Zulu and Preakness Stakes winner Early Voting.

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Cyberknife won the Arkansas Derby earlier this year for his first Grade 1, while Taiba took the Santa Anita Derby in just his second career start. Both started in the Kentucky Derby, with Taiba 12th and Cyberknife 18th. Taiba was making his first start since in the Haskell. Cyberknife, meanwhile, won the Grade 3 Matt Winn at Churchill Downs in preparation for Monmouth’s signature event. The son of Gun Runner is now the first 3-year-old male this season to win multiple Grade 1 events.

Gun Runner, by Candy Ride, sits 10th on the 2022 general sires earnings list through Sunday thanks to his early-season success, with four graded stakes winners on the year.

His statistics at this curve of his career compare favorably to similar points for Uncle Mo and Tapit, the two horses who held the freshman sire earnings record before him, and both of whom have gone on to become perennial classic sires and standout general sires.

Like Gun Runner, Uncle Mo (freshman season 2015) and Tapit (2008) each sired an Eclipse Award champion juvenile from their first crop and led the overall 2-year-old sires list along with the freshman list. Gun Runner, Uncle Mo, and Tapit finished 67th, 69th, and 108th, respectively, on the general sire list in their freshman seasons – understandable positions, considering that freshmen have far fewer runners than the established sires on the list.

To this point of the 2016 season, Uncle Mo was the sire of seven graded stakes winners, compared to four at this point for Gun Runner. Each has a first-crop classic winner – Uncle Mo’s Nyquist won the 2016 Derby – and two Grade 1 winners. Uncle Mo went on to finish third on the 2016 general sire list.

To this point of the 2009 season, Tapit was the sire of three graded winners, with one Grade 1 winner. He finished 21st on the sire list.