Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer Gun Runner, who recorded another Breeders’ Cup winner this year and is heading toward another top-three finish in the national standings, has a loaded pipeline with a smashing season at the yearling sales. His first sons to stud, Cyberknife and Early Voting, were, unsurprisingly, well received. Six sons of Gun Runner enter stud around the country this year, including champion Sierra Leone at Ashford Stud and Grade 1 winner Locked at Gainesway. Three of these sons of Gun Runner have another particular pedigree distinction, as Il Miracolo at Crestwood Farm in Kentucky, Disarm at Hidden Lake Farm in New York, and Red Run at Milky Way Farm in California were all produced by the magical cross of Gun Runner over a Tapit mare. Winchell Thoroughbreds raced Tapit and maintains a major interest in the perennial leading sire, who also has emerged as a star broodmare sire at Gainesway. Winchell also co-campaigned Gun Runner with the Three Chimneys operation, which now stands the champion. Fortuitously, the Winchell family’s two leading sires have proven a good nick. Crossing Gun Runner over a Tapit mare has already produced Grade 1 winner Society; graded stakes winners Disarm, Il Miracolo, Recharge, Red Route One, and Wicked Halo; and four other stakes winners, including Red Run. Il Miracolo, the only new stallion from this cross debuting in Kentucky, won the Grade 3 Smarty Jones at 3 and the Grade 3 Ghostzapper in 2024. The millionaire placed in six other graded stakes, including a third in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby. N.Y. newcomers bring pedigree power New York’s Hidden Lake Farm jumps back into the stallion game by bringing two graded stakes winners from a major sireline to the state – Disarm, by prominent young sire Gun Runner, and Confidence Game, by Gun Runner’s own leading sire, Candy Ride. “We are very excited to jump back into the New York stallion arena,” Hidden Lake’s Chris Bernhard said in a press release. “Both beautiful colts offer valuable opportunity for breeders in the Empire State. Disarm is the first Gun Runner to stand in New York and, to date, his other sons are off to a great start in the sales ring. Confidence Game is by Candy Ride, perhaps the most prolific sire of sire in the last decade, siring Gun Runner, Twirling Candy, and Vekoma.” Millionaire Disarm, bred on the prominent Gun Runner-Tapit cross, won the Grade 3 Matt Winn and placed in six graded stakes. His multiple Grade 1 placings included a runner-up effort to champion Arcangelo in the 2023 Travers Stakes, finishing ahead of champions Forte and National Treasure. Confidence Game, winner of the Grade 2 Rebel and placed in two other stakes, is bred on a similar pedigree pattern as Disarm. The son of Candy Ride is out of Eblouissante, whose sire, Bernardini, like Tapit, is from the A.P. Indy line. Eblouissante is a half-sister to Hall of Famer Zenyatta. Post Time debuts in home state Maryland-bred Post Time has ably flown the flag for his home state in open company around the country the last several years. The Grade 2 winner returns to Maryland to launch his stud career at the state’s most prominent farm, Northview Stallion Station. “Post Time was a joy to own from the start – a beautiful, kind horse with immense talent,” owner Ellen Charles said in a press release. “I hope Maryland breeders will support him the way he supported us every time he ran.” Post Time, by the Tapit horse Frosted, put together a record of 22-12-4-5 and had earnings of more than $1.4 million. He won eight stakes, including the Grade 3 General George and Grade 2 Carter at Aqueduct. He was multiple Grade 1-placed last year, finishing second in the Metropolitan Handicap, third in the Whitney, and second in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Trainer Brittany Russell called him “a true throwback racehorse.” Bango relocates to Indiana Bango, the winningest horse in recorded Churchill Downs history, will begin his stud career less than two hours north in Indiana at Breakway Farm. Bango, an 8-year-old Congrats horse, raced as a homebred for Fred and Debbie Schwartz’s Tamaroak Stable and was trained by Greg Foley. He was retired in November with a career record of 42-15-4-5 and earnings of $1,644,979. Although Bango was a stakes winner at Turfway and Ellis Park, third in the Grade 2 Phoenix in 2023 at Keeneland, and stakes-placed at Fair Grounds, he did his best work at Churchill. His 12 wins at Churchill, the last of those achieved in September 2024, broke the track’s recorded mark that he shared with Ready’s Rocket, who scored 11 wins at Churchill, all at the claiming or starter-allowance level, in a career spanning 2005-12. Bango’s Churchill wins include six stakes – the 2021 and 2022 editions of the Aristides Stakes, the 2021 Kelly’s Landing, the 2022 Bet On Sunshine, the 2023 St. Matthews, and the 2023 Louisville Thoroughbred Society. Bango is part of a growing stallion roster at Breakway, which is operated by the mother-and-daughter team of Janice Jordan and Tara Mathias. Joining six stallions already at the farm, including state stalwart Unbridled Express, are three newcomers for 2026. Eclipse Award winner Maximum Security, whose first foals are 3, has relocated from Kentucky to join the Indiana ranks. Retiring alongside Bango this year is graded stakes-placed Bolzy, the first son of Gun Runner to stand in Indiana.