2025 Del Mar Futurity (G1) winner Brant has been retired from racing and will begin stud next year at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa. No stud fee was immediately announced by the farm.
The son of Gun Runner made a splash last year, first when sold for $3 million, topping the Ocala Breeders' Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training after working a furlong there in :09 3/5, and then with his racetrack success. He broke his maiden at first asking at 5 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar, then repeated at the seaside track in the 7-furlong Del Mar Futurity (G1) for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. Stretched out for the 1 1/16-mile Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) following that race last fall, he set the pace before weakening to finish third behind victorious Ted Noffey and runner-up Mr. A. P.
Brant would not sustain that same form in two starts at age 3, fading to fifth in the March 7 San Felipe Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita Park and then running fourth in the June 28 Maxfield Stakes (G3) when cut back to a sprint at Churchill Downs. He went to the sidelines thereafter. He retires with earnings of $424,400.
Precocious, Brant posted a Beyer Speed Figure of 101 in his debut, when timed in 1:02.63. Eventual grade 1 winner Intrepido was among the colts he defeated in that initial start.
His graded stakes-winning stablemates Desert Gate and Litmus Test were two of those behind him in the Del Mar Futurity.
Video
Bred in Kentucky by PTK, Brant is out of the Liam's Map mare Tynan, a half sister to graded stakes winners Pappacap and Boppy O. St. Clair Stables acquired him for $200,000 at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale before Eddie Woods consigned him to the OBS sale.
Woods called Brant a "special horse" after Brant's then-record OBS sale.
As he prepared for his debut last summer, owner Amr Zedan of Zedan Racing Stables named the gray or roan colt after his friend and fellow horse owner Peter Brant, in gratitude for their friendship and the help he received from him.
"Amr asked if the colt was good enough to name Brant and I said he was," Baffert told BloodHorse last fall.
He becomes breed-shaping Gun Runner's 10th son to enter stud in Kentucky, Hill 'n' Dale announced.
"We are very excited to add Brant, by Gun Runner, to our young roster where he will join our newest additions, Arabian Knight, by Uncle Mo, and Barnes, by Into Mischief," John Sikura, president of Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, said in a release.
All three graded winners raced for Zedan and Baffert.
Brant "is a beautiful horse who covers the ground effortlessly," Sikura continued. "He was both a standout sale horse selling for $3,000,000 and a standout racehorse, having won a grade 1 at 2. I am confident that breeders will love him."
