Gun Runner, Sire Phenom (May 22, 2022)

If it seems like I'm biased toward all things Gun Runner, it's mostly true. I loved him when he was racing, fell in deeper love when I laid eyes on him in the flesh after he retired to Three Chimneys Farm, and my love was vindicated when he became the Leading Freshman Sire at the end of 2021. Now he's sired a first-crop classic winner in Early Voting, who ran off with the Preakness Stakes-G1 yesterday at Pimlico. Does it get better? Probably, but let's look at what he's done so far. Gun Runner has 12 stakes winners from his first crop, now three-year-olds. Seven of these are Graded stakes winners, and five of these are Grade 1 winners, including the Champion Two-Year-Old Filly Echo Zulu. Five of his stakes winners are from A.P. Indy-line mares, including Taiba-G1 (dam by Flatter), Wicked Halo-G2 (dam by Tapit), Red Run (dam by Tapit), Shotgun Hottie (dam by Malibu Moon) and Optionality (dam by Pulpit). Three of his stakes winners are from Storm Cat-line mares: Echo Zulu-G1 (dam by Menifee), Gunite-G1 (dam by Cowboy Cal) and Pappacap-G2 (dam by Scat Daddy). Two are from Mr. Prospector-line mares: Cyberknife-G1 (dam by Flower Alley) and Booze Runner (dam by Empire Maker). His remaining stakes winners are Early Voting-G1 (dam by Tiznow) and Concept (dam by Cindago, by Indian Charlie). Gun Runner is by Candy Ride out of Quiet Giant by Giant's Causeway, second dam by Quiet Dance by Quiet American. He is 4x4 to Fappiano (through Cryptoclearance and Quiet American). He's also linebred 4x5 to Blushing Groom (through Candy Stripes and Rahy) and 5x4 to Lyphard (through Bubble Company and Misty Dancer). He has four stakes winners who are inbred (by my definition, with an ancestor duplicated within four generations), and they all include Storm Cat in this pattern. Echo Zulu is 4x4 Storm Cat; Early Voting is 4x3 Storm Cat; Gunite and Concept are both 3x3 to Storm Cat's son Giant's Causeway. Pappacap and Wicked Halo are both 4x5 Storm Cat, so not inbred but linebred. I've been wary of doubling up on Storm Cat because, despite his genetic brilliance and prepotency, there are negatives that need to be considered in those inbred matings. Fortunately, Gun Runner has none of those negatives. He's not over-topped on weak underpinnings with the bad knees that showed up in a lot of Storm Cats, so there's no doubling up to the scarey stuff. This may be because his source of Storm Cat is through The Iron Horse, Giant's Causeway. It's interesting that none of Gun Runner's stakes winners have close inbreeding to any other strain besides Storm Cat. Several of them have further linbreeding 4x5 or 5x5 to targets like Blushing Groom (Cyberknife, Gunite, Concept), Lyphard (Early Voting, Cyberknife) and Fappiano (Red Run, Shotgun Hottie, Booze Runner). Some of them are out of mares who are inbred to Mr. Prospector (Cyberknife, Taiba, Gunite, Shotgun Hottie) or Northern Dancer (Booze Runner) or Secretariat (Shotgun Hottie) or Alydar (Concept). While nothing is written in stone as far as pedigree theories, Gun Runner and his best offspring (so far) seem to suggest that a couple of theories may have some foundation here. One is to inbreed with outcrosses and outcross with inbreds. Gun Runner has 4x4 crosses of Fappiano, but he has not yet sired any stakes winners with further inbreeding to his 4x4 crosses of Fappiano. He has had success with more distant linebreeding to Fappiano's sire Mr. Prospector. The genes don't know where they are in these man-made pedigree charts, but continued inbreeding does not appear to be a great strategy, certainly not in this case based on the current evidence. [I have seen it working it with a few other stallions, however. Take a look at Scat Daddy's sire record, for instance, who was inbred to Mr. Prospector.] A second theory possibly working here is the old Olin Gentry/E.R. Bradley idea of "bringing back to the sire the best blood of his dam." While Gun Runner is from an exceptional female family, his dam's sire is Giant's Causeway, a son of Storm Cat. Three of his five Grade 1 winners and four of his 12 stakes winners are inbred to Storm Cat or his son Giant's Causeway. You can decide if that's significant. I think it is. Here's an interesting photo comparison. The top photo is Gun Runner. The bottom photo is his sixth dam, the great racemare Gallorette. I see a similarity. You may not. (I claim no rights to these photos.) Gun Runner (photo from Blood-Horse Stallion Register website) Gallorette (photo by Bert Clark Thayer) Copyright by Anne Peters 2022.	Pedigree of Gun Runner (2013 by Candy Ride (ARG) - Quiet Giant by Giant's Causeway. Candy Ride Ride the Rails Cryptoclearance Fappiano Naval Orange Herbalesian Herbager Alanesian Candy Girl Candy Stripes Blushing Groom Bubble Company City Girl Farnesio Cithara Quiet Giant Giant's Causeway Storm Cat Storm Bird Terlingua Mariah's Storm Rahy Immense Quiet Dance Quiet American Fappiano Demure Misty Dancer Lyphard Flight Dancer Gun Runner's stakes winners to date: Horse 1st dam's sire 2nd dam's sire inbreeding Echo Zulu, 2019 f. C2F Menifee Eastern Echo 4x4 Storm Cat Early Voting, 2019 c. G1 Tiznow Storm Cat 4x3 Storm Cat Cyberknife, 2019 c. G1 Flower Alley Awesome Again   Taiba, 2019 c. G1 Flatter Left Banker   Gunite, 2019 c. G1 Cowboy Cal Pulpit 3x3 Giant's Causeway Pappacap, 2019 c. G2 Scat Daddy Red Ransom   Wicked Halo, 2019 c. G2 Tapit Harlan's Holiday   Red Run, 2019 c. SW Tapit Prized   Shotgun Hottie, 2019 f. SW Malibu Moon Unbridled   Optionality, 2019 f. SW Pulpit Olympio   Concept, 2019 c. SW Cindago Giant's Causeway 3x3 Giant's Causeway Booze Runner SWN Empire Maker Polish Numbers