Given that he is an undefeated champion juvenile by Candy Ride , also the sire of sires Gun Runner and Twirling Candy , there inevitably were high expectations for the first-crop juveniles by Game Winner , who are 2-year-olds of 2024. Despite that, he had actually been flying under the radar through this spring and summer, with just two winners, the Churchill Downs maiden special weight scorer Conquering Cat, and Gaming, who broke his maiden at Del Mar in August. On Sept. 8, however, he dramatically appeared on the screen when Gaming captured the Del Mar Futurity (G1) on his second start.
This marked the second time in the space of a week that an offspring of a freshman sire captured a grade 1, following the success of Chancer McPatrick (by McKinzie , who also supplied the Del Mar Futurity (G1) runner-up McKinzie Street) in the Hopeful Stakes (G1). There was also nearly a third, as Vodka With a Twist, from the first crop of Thousand Words , came within inches of taking the Del Mar Debutante (G1).
Although he had taken his maiden in impressive style, going wire to wire to score by 5 1/2 lengths, Gaming was the longest shot of three Bob Baffert-trained runners in the Del Mar Futurity. Sitting off a demanding early pace and climbing a bit as he took dirt for the first time, Gaming moved into contention on the turn and assumed command as the field hit the stretch. From there, he stayed on well to hold McKinzie Street at bay by 1 3/4 lengths.
Like Gaming, Game Winner was also a Baffert-trained Del Mar Futurity winner in his second start, scoring by 1 1/2 lengths in 2018 over Rowayton and Roadster . That effort was followed by a dominant, 4 1/2-length tally in the American Pharoah Stakes (G1) and a come-from-behind, 2 1/4-length win over Knicks Go in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1).
At 3, Game Winner fell a nose shy of catching Omaha Beach in the 2019 Rebel Stakes (G2), then missed by a half-length to Roadster in the Santa Anita Derby (G1). In the Kentucky Derby (G1), Game Winner was shuffled back to nearly last early and endured a rough and very wide trip, despite which he continually made ground to cross the wire in sixth, just 3 1/2 lengths behind the first home, the subsequently disqualified Maximum Security , in an effort that was far better than the finishing position reflected. He was moved up to fifth due to Maximum Security's demotion to 17th.
Given a break, Game Winner returned in mid-July and strolled to a five-length winner in the Los Alamitos Futurity (G3). Unfortunately, he suffered a high suspensory tendon injury in his left front leg. Although he remained in training the following year, he could never make it back to the races, retiring to Lane's End Farm in Versailles, Ky., to stand at a fee of $30,000 for the 2021 breeding season.
Gaming is the seventh foal and third winner for his dam, So Stylish. An Irish-raced daughter of Johannesburg, So Stylish scored a debut victory and took third in the five-furlong Marble Hill Stakes in May of her 2-year-old year but was unplaced in her other two starts at 3. She was half sister to a much better juvenile, One Cool Cat (by Johannesburg's grandsire, Storm Cat), who earned honors as European Champion 2-Year-Old after capturing a trio of group events, including the Phoenix Stakes (G1) and National Stakes (G1). Although less of a standout the following year, One Cool Cat did enough to end the campaign as the top-rated 3-year-old sprinter in England and Ireland.
So Stylish is also half sister to Don't Tacha Me. She is by A.P. Indy, the broodmare sire of Game Winner, and her Storm Cat daughter, Indefinable, when bred to Candy Ride produced Gaming's close relative, Candip, winner of the Fabulous Strike Handicap and Iowa Sprint Handicap, and twice runner-up in graded stakes.
Another half sister, Dominique's Show, is granddam of the Del Mar Derby (G2T) and La Jolla Handicap (G3T) winner Free Rose. So Stylish's dam, Tacha, a daughter of Mr. Prospector, is a sister to Sha Tha. She was a listed winner and took second in the Poule d'Essai de Pouliches (G1) in France and captured the All Along Stakes (G2) in the United States. Sha Tha appears as dam of the Pleasant Colony horse Sate Shinto, a high-weight in France at 3, and she's third dam of Luck of the Kitten. This stakes winner took second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T). Tacha is also a sister to Onaga, the dam of the multiple grade 1-winning Aragorn (by Giant's Causeway, another Storm Cat line horse), and half sister to Briar Creek, a group-winning stayer in England.
Gaming's third dam, the Del Mar Oaks (G2T) winner and Hollywood Derby (G1T) second Savannah Dancer, was about as well bred as one could ask, being by Northern Dancer out of Valoris, who was not only winner of the English Oaks (G1) and Irish One Thousand Guineas (G1) but was also a half sister to Val de Loir, winner of the Prix du Jockey-Club-French Derby (G1) and leading sire in France, and to the dam of another French Derby winner, Roi Lear. The third dam of Valoris, Carpet Slipper, is dam of both Godiva, successful in the English One Thousand Guineas and Oaks, and of Windsor Slipper, who took the Irish Triple Crown. Carpet Slipper is half sister to another notable mare in Dalmary, whose best-known descendants include Sadler's Wells and Nureyev.
Gaming is a product of an extended cross of Candy Ride and sons with Storm Cat line mares, which has been "a gift that keeps on giving" ever since the appearance of the 2011 Santa Anita Derby winner Sidney's Candy, from the first crop of Candy Ride, and out of a Storm Cat mare. There are now no less than 64 stakes winners bred on versions of the Candy Ride/Storm Cat cross, with champions Shared Belief, Gun Runner, and Echo Zulu among the 10 grade 1 winners.
