Eclipse Award champion Runhappy won the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland. Five years later, the freshman stallion’s first crop is set to hit the racetrack – perhaps at Keeneland, which cards the season’s first prominent maiden special weight races for juveniles. Kentucky is at the forefront of some of the discussions regarding the phase-out of race-day use of furosemide, a development which would suit Runhappy just fine. The use of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide, commonly known as Lasix, is an oft-discussed issue that has been pushed to the forefront of the racing and bloodstock industry over the last two years. Several jurisdictions have discussed a phase-out of the raceday use of the medication, with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission taking concrete steps to do so. In December, the KHRC approved a proposal to eliminate the raceday use of Lasix in 2-year-old races in 2020, and all stakes races in the state in 2021. The approved proposal was still going through an official regulatory review as of late February, with that process needing to come to completion before its implementation. Runhappy made all 10 starts of his career without raceday Lasix, winning seven of those outings, with three Grade 1 scores in his championship season of 2015. The colt rolled by four lengths in his Grade 1 debut, the King’s Bishop Stakes at Saratoga, giving him a three-race win streak. He continued on to Keeneland, first winning the Grade 3 Phoenix Stakes with defending Eclipse champion sprinter Work All Week third, and then capturing the Breeders’ Cup Sprint over Private Zone. He added one more Grade 1 victory on the opposite coast, winning the Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita. Runhappy retired to historic Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., where he covered 127 mares in his first season, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. Owner James McIngvale has opined that Runhappy’s Lasix-free résumé could make him more attractive in the current U.S. climate, as well as to international buyers. “I think it makes his progeny more attractive because you don’t have to worry about some artificial substance aiding his ability on the track,” McIngvale said. “He ran strictly on hay, oats, and water. I think it’ll help him, and I think as the sport realizes that we’ve got to be transparent and drug-free moving forward to attract more bettors, more fans, especially more young people.” Runhappy has been aggressively promoted for years, with his name attached as the presenting sponsor of high-level stakes around the country, race meets, and the Eclipse Awards. Additional promotion includes the availability of bonus money for his early runners, put up by McIngvale. A $100,000 bonus will be paid to any 2-year-old by Runhappy who wins an unrestricted maiden race during the 2020 meets at Saratoga and Del Mar, known for their strong juvenile races, as well as at Kentucky Downs, where Runhappy is the presenting sponsor of the rich turf meeting. The bonus presumably added some value and interest to Runhappy’s first foals in the commercial arena. The stallion, who is by Super Saver, averaged a healthy $148,667 against a $25,000 stud fee from 15 first-crop weanlings sold at public auction in the fall of 2018. He went on to average $222,190, more than 8.8 times the conception stud fee, from 63 yearlings sold at public auction last year. That included a $700,000 colt at the Keeneland September yearling sale, giving Runhappy the most expensive yearling by a first-crop sire at that auction. “The bonus, certainly, got a lot of buzz,” McIngvale said. “We’re excited about that coming up in a few months. I think that extra buzz, and obviously, we’ve done a lot of advertising, it certainly has worked to get his name out there, at least get people to look at his progeny. . . . Fingers tightly crossed, game face on as we go on to” the racing season. Among early-season 2-year-old auctions that are still scheduled to take place, Runhappy had a draft of six juveniles for the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s March sale. McIngvale, who has seven Runhappy juveniles that he plans to campaign himself, is hearing positive feedback on the youngsters. “We’re very pleased with them, and some of them look quite precocious,” he said. “I’m assuming a lot of his horses are going to be quite precocious, and hopefully they’ll come out running. “I think the key things about Runhappy are two things,” McIngvale added. “His incredible mind – nothing fazed him, he was very cool, slept a lot. . . . And number two, he had blazing speed. Speed wins at any game. . . . And he’s passing on, hopefully, that speed.”