Gun Runner shoots to the top of freshman, juvenile sire lists

The summer meetings at Saratoga and Del Mar help kick the 2-year-old division into high gear. Both meets host a graded stakes series for juveniles, capped by the first Grade 1 events in the division for both colts and fillies, as well as rich maiden special weights that often mark the debuts of well-bred or high-priced youngsters. These eight weeks on the calendar are often when the freshman sire race begins to sort itself out.

That was the case this summer as 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner asserted himself atop the standings. Gun Runner – who raced for Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm and now stands at Three Chimneys – recorded four graded stakes winners on the summer, including a sweep of Saratoga’s closing-weekend Grade 1’s for juveniles, to take command not only of North America’s freshman sire list, but of the overall juvenile sire list.

Through Monday, which marked closing day at both Saratoga and Del Mar, Gun Runner’s freshman crop had banked $1,293,820 for the lead. Tracking him in second on the list was Practical Joke, a resident of Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, at $864,223. The pair swept the exacta in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes on Monday at Saratoga, with Gunite leading home Wit – earlier the winner of the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes – by 5 3/4 lengths.

Just a day earlier, Gun Runner had recorded his first Grade 1 winner as his Echo Zulu won the sister race to the Hopeful, the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes. Those wins gave Gun Runner four graded stakes winners over the summer. He also is the sire of Wicked Halo, who won the Grade 2 Adirondack Stakes at Saratoga, and Pappacap, who won the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar.

Gunite and Wicked Halo race as homebreds for Winchell Thoroughbreds, while Winchell owns Echo Zulu with L and N Racing. All three juveniles are trained by Steve Asmussen, who also conditioned their sire.

“I can’t measure how much I wanted to have Gun Runner’s first Grade 1 winner,” Asmussen said following Echo Zulu’s victory. “Everything he did for the barn, he’s obviously a tremendous sire and somebody had to be first, but I’m glad it was us.

Gun Runner also leads the overall 2-year-old sire lists by both earnings and by Beyer Speed Figures. Darley stallion Nyquist, last year’s leading freshman, is second in 2-year-old earnings with $911,379 earned by his second crop through Monday. They are followed by Practical Joke and by his sire, perennial leading stallion Into Mischief, who stands at Spendthrift Farm.

Gun Runner’s juveniles have recorded five Beyer Speed Figures of 80 or higher, those coming from three individuals. He leads the Beyer Sire Performance Standings, Daily Racing Form’s exclusive stallion metrics, in both regards. He is the only 2-year-old sire to have recorded multiple Beyers of 90 or higher this season, with both coming from Echo Zulu. The filly posted a 92 for her debut victory in July, and then a 90 in the Spinaway.

Gun Runner and Practical Joke are followed on the freshman sire earnings list by Classic Empire (Ashford), Caravaggio (Ashford), Connect (Lane’s End Farm), Klimt (Darby Dan Farm), Mohaymen (Shadwell Farm), Unified (Lane’s End), Gormley (Spendthrift), and Stanford (Tommy Town Thoroughbreds).

Caravaggio, who stood his first three seasons at Coolmore’s Irish headquarters before moving to Kentucky this year due to strong interest, ended the summer seasons leading the freshman list by individual winners, with 17 to 12 for runner-up Practical Joke. That includes three stakes winners in Agartha, a multiple group stakes winner in Ireland; French stakes winner Dizzy Bizu; and Her World, a stakes winner at Monmouth.