Quarantine may keep Gun Runner out of Pegasus
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
Gun Runner, third in the Kentucky Derby last year and the winner of the Grade 1 Clark Handicap in his final start of 2016, worked six furlongs in 1:13.20 on Saturday at Fair Grounds. The colt is ready to run in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park, but it is looking increasingly like he won’t get the chance.
Fair Grounds remained under quarantine Monday because of an outbreak of the equine herpesvirus that began last month. A horse first tested positive for the virus, known as EHV-1, on Dec. 26, and there now have been seven cases at the track, though only two of the more-serious neuropathic subtype of the virus. The entire backstretch was quarantined Jan. 2, and with two new EHV-1 cases reported last Saturday, it is increasingly unlikely that the quarantine will be lifted in time for Gun Runner to travel for the Pegasus.
Even when Louisiana Department of Agriculture officials decide to lift the Fair Grounds quarantine, out-of-state racing venues are likely to wait longer to begin accepting horses from Louisiana. But should Gun Runner find a way from New Orleans to south Florida, he is likely to make the trip, according to D.J. Fiske, racing manger for Winchell Stables, the co-owner of Gun Runner with Three Chimneys Farm.
“If he can get off the grounds and out of New Orleans, he’ll probably go to Miami,” Fiske said Saturday after Gun Runner’s work. “It would depend as well if we can get out of New Orleans in a time frame that synchronizes on his schedule. We can’t get there on the 27th, for instance. We’ll keep training like we’re going, and if at some point we pass the point of no return, we’ll make another plan.”
Gun Runner’s owners don’t have a spot secured for the Pegasus, for which starting-gate berths originally were sold for $1 million. Entry slots can be sold off, and with the race fast approaching and fewer than a full field of 12 runners confirmed, Fiske said Gun Runner’s owners “feel confident that if we can get him out of [Fair Grounds], we can get him in the gate.”
Fiske said beyond the potential Pegasus start, there are no firm plans for Gun Runner. “I think we’ll just worry about Plan A for the moment,” he said.