A day after Gun Runner 's progeny posted five stakes wins—two of which came in grade 1s within an hour apart—the word used to describe his success as a sire boils down to this: unprecedented.
"I have never seen anything like it," said Winchell Thoroughbreds racing manager David Fiske. "And neither has anybody else."
The son of Candy Ride out of the Giant's Causeway mare Quiet Giant, had already turned heads since entering stud in 2018. Gun Runner was the leading freshman sire in 2021 and established the all-time progeny earnings record for a first crop sire with $4,278,640.
He has followed that up this year as the leading sire of 3-year-olds, with earnings in excess of $9,000,000.
"There are a lot of good horses out there. There are a lot of good horses that are still around," Fiske said. "And a lot of them have to contend with Gun Runners. They are Gun Runners or you have to contend with Gun Runners. That's sort of the landscape at the moment."
It was a banner day for Gun Runner and his progeny Sept. 24 as he scored the grade 1 double at Parx Racing with Society in the Cotillion Stakes (G1) followed shortly by Taiba in the Pennsylvania Derby (G1).
Later Saturday evening at Churchill Downs champion 2-year-old Echo Zulu captured the Dogwood Stakes (G3), Gunite took the Harrods Creek Stakes, and Sixtythreecaliber claimed the Seneca Overnight Stakes.
Winchell Thoroughbreds shares ownership of Gun Runner with Three Chimneys Farm, where he stands for an undisclosed amount.
Three Chimneys director of stallion seasons Tom Hamm believes Gun Runner's accomplishments as a sire have earned him the right to be in the same conversation as legendary stallions such as Tapit , Storm Cat, and Mr. Prospector as well as European sire greats like Galileo and Danehill.
"He's done things that we haven't seen before," Hamm said. "And I think the breeders and the buyers out there take notice of it, and I think that's great. And then a day like (Saturday), obviously it's almost unbelievable, and obviously, we're excited about it."
The popularity of Gun Runner was evident at the recently concluded Keeneland September Yearling Sale, as five of his offspring were sold for over $1 million, with one filly dropping the hammer at $1.5 million. Overall, 40 of his yearlings changed hands for a total gross of $18,475,000 during the 12-day sale.
For the entirety of 2022 thus far, the stallion boasts a stellar $452,498 yearling average, which has nearly doubled his 2021 average of $288,483.
"As a whole, they're athletes, they are all really good movers...I think that's probably their greatest attribute, they are just athletic," Hamm said of the commonality among Gun Runner's offspring. "They kind of resemble him. They're usually balanced and nice horses."
Hamm sees a great deal of potential, namely in Society. The filly out of the Tapit mare Etiquette, has continued to improve over the course of her 3-year-old campaign for owner/breeder Peter Blum Thoroughbreds and trainer Steve Asmussen. After annexing the Monomoy Girl Overnight Stakes in June, Society broke through with her first graded stakes score with a dominating victory in the Charles Town Oaks (G3) prior to the Cotillion.
He said she may be one of the best 3-year-old fillies out there.
Fiske called Gun Runner one of his favorite topics. It's not hard to see why.
Now the question becomes how long can he and his offspring maintain this level of success.
"This morning what jumped out at me was the black type in the column of percentage of stakes horses from starters," he said. "He'd been first, but it had been like 17, 18%, and this morning it was 20. I'm certain that it will fall just because of the nature of the big book era that we're in. There are just so many foals out that you just can't maintain those percentages. But at the moment, he's just in front of a lot of other stallions."
