Kentucky Derby 2022 pedigree profile: Taiba

Taiba

Gun Runner – Needmore Flattery, by Flatter

Bred in Kentucky by Bruce C. Young ($140,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling purchase by Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds; $1.7 million Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream 2-year-old purchase by Gary Young, agent for Zedan Racing)

Gun Runner has emerged from prep season for the spring classics with an embarrassment of riches. The record-setting young sire added Taiba to his Kentucky Derby candidates last weekend and could wind up with multiple entrants in both the Derby and Kentucky Oaks.

Gun Runner, a six-time Grade 1 winner, was the 2017 Horse of the Year. He came out red-hot with his first crop to the races last year, not only shattering the earnings record for a North American freshman sire, but also finishing atop the nation’s overall 2-year-old sire list. The season was led by Eclipse Award champion Echo Zulu, who completed an unbeaten season with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, her third Grade 1 victory.

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His foals have kept rolling at age 3. In addition to Taiba, who won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in just his second career start, Gun Runner also is expected to be represented in this Kentucky Derby by another major prep winner, Grade 1 Arkansas Derby victor Cyberknife. Grade 3 winner Early Voting, runner-up in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial, also has the points to run in the Derby if his connections choose.

One day prior, Echo Zulu, who remained unbeaten by winning the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks, is expected to be among the favorites in the Kentucky Oaks. Gun Runner’s stakes winner Shotgun Hottie is sitting 15th on the Oaks points list after finishing third in the Grade 3 Gazelle Stakes.

Gun Runner also is represented by Grade 1 winner Gunite, Grade 2 winners Pappacap and Wicked Halo, and stakes winners Booze Runner, Concept, Optionality, and Red Run.

Taiba is the first winner out of Needmore Flattery, a two-time Ohio-bred horse of the year. The Flatter mare won 17 of 39 career starts, at distances from five furlongs to 1 1/8 miles, and earned $732,103 while winning 14 Ohio-bred stakes, including the 2015 Best of Ohio Distaff.

Needmore Flattery is one of eight winners from as many starters out of the stakes-placed Left Banker mare Kiosk. The mare also is the dam of stakes-winning sprinters Flatter Her Again and Kiosk’s Cause. Flatter Her Again is a full sister to Needmore Flattery.