Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Gun Runner

Gun Runner

Candy Ride – Quiet Giant, by Giant’s Causeway

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Quiet Giant went through the ring at the 2011 Keeneland November breeding stock sale as part of the dispersal of the late Virginia-based breeder Edward P. Evans and was among the regally bred mares who supercharged that auction, selling for $3 million to Besilu Stables. The following spring, the mare was bred to Candy Ride for her first foal. Gun Runner, the result of that pairing, is now running for Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm and became the latest to highlight the success of Evans’s program when he won the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds.

As the colt moves forward to the Louisiana Derby and Kentucky Derby, he is well equipped with stamina on both sides of his pedigree.

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Quiet Giant, a daughter of leading sire Giant’s Causeway, won five stakes, including the Grade 2 Molly Pitcher at Monmouth, and earned $405,389. Out of the stakes-winning Quiet American mare Quiet Dance, she is a half-sister to five stakes horses, most notably 2005 Horse of the Year Saint Liam. He earned championship honors for a campaign that included Grade 1 wins in the Donn Handicap, Stephen Foster Handicap, Woodward Stakes, and Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Quiet Giant is also a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Congressionalhonor, stakes winner Dance Quietly, Grade 1-placed Miss Besilu, Grade 2-placed American Dance, Grade 1 producer Beatem Buster, and stakes producer Quiet Now. It is the extended family of Irish champion Minstrella, the third dam of Grade 2 winner Blofeld; of Grade 1 winner Rolling Fog; and of multiple Grade 2-winning millionaire Pants On Fire.

Candy Ride is a multisurface sire whose foals have excelled at longer distances, highlighted by champion Shared Belief and millionaire Misremembered, both winners of the Santa Anita Handicap. He also has been an influence on past classic campaigns, siring Sidney’s Candy, who won the 2010 Santa Anita Derby, and Candy Boy, who won the 2014 Robert B. Lewis Stakes before finishing second in the Santa Anita Derby.

Candy Ride is now represented by three young sons at stud – Twirling Candy, Misremembered, and Sidney’s Candy. All were track-record-setting Grade 1 winners who have sired stakes-winning 3-year-olds from their first crop. Twirling Candy is represented by Kentucky Derby hopeful Danzing Candy, while Misremembered is the sire of Louisiana Derby challenger Dazzling Gem.