Gun Runner wraps up Whitney prep with easy half-mile work

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The connections of one horse are looking to run a rabbit against him. The long-range forecast calls for rain.

But, six days out from Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.2 million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga, trainer Steve Asmussen seemed worry-free as it pertained to Gun Runner, the probable odds-on favorite in the prestigious 1 1/8-mile race for older males.

Gun Runner completed preparations for the Whitney on Sunday morning by working an easy half-mile in 49.87 seconds over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga. Gun Runner went his opening eighth in 12.94 seconds, a quarter in 25.29 and he got his final quarter in 24.58 with his ears up and exercise rider Angel Garcia barely nudging on him to finish. He galloped out five furlongs in 1:03.31.

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“He breezed well, cool morning, everything’s going smoothly,” Asmussen said. “Hope for a good week.”

Gun Runner, coming off a dominant seven-length victory in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on June 17, will be an overwhelming favorite against what will likely be five rivals in the Whitney. Keen Ice, the Suburban winner; War Story, the Brooklyn winner; Cautious Giant, a rabbit for War Story; Breaking Lucky, an unlucky fourth in the Woodward here last year; and Tu Brutus, 11-length winner of the Flat Out Stakes earlier this year, are the other expected starters. Entries for the Whitney will be taken and post positions assigned on Tuesday evening at Sperry’s in downtown Saratoga Springs.

Owner Ron Paolucci, of Loooch Racing, said he still plans to run Cautious Giant in the Whitney as a rabbit to make sure Gun Runner doesn’t have things his own way on the front end.

That and a long-range forecast that calls for rain didn’t seem to faze Asmussen on a glorious Sunday morning in Saratoga.

“It looks like it’s going to rain, definitely off tracks haven’t been his thing,” Asmussen said. “That’s out of our control. We need to concentrate on anything we have to do with.”

Tu Brutus, third as the 1-2 favorite in the Grade 2 Brooklyn last out, is entered in Thursday’s $100,000 Birdstone Stakes at Saratoga. But trainer Gary Contessa said Sunday afternoon that he will likely scratch from there to run in the Whitney.

“It’s a Grade 1 worth over a million dollars,” Contessa said. “You take Gun Runner out of there, no question we’d be running. A Grade 1 means a lot more next to his name than the Birdstone.”