Gunthers dream of completing Atlantic double at Goodwood
Having bred Justify, the owners of Without Parole chase more glory, reports Marcus Armytage
By the time the Qatar Sussex Stakes, highlight of Glorious Goodwood, has been run on Wednesday, John Gunther and his daughter Tanya, owner-breeders of the unbeaten favourite Without Parole, could be on their way to having bred the best three-year-old on both sides of the Atlantic.
It would represent a remarkable achievement for an operation with fewer than 30 mares. The United States leg of the double is already a done deal; the Gunthers bred – and sold as a yearling for $500,000 (£380,000) – Justify who, in June, became only the 13th horse to land the US Triple Crown.
Victory in the Sussex would not guarantee Without Parole similar status here but it will go a long way towards it. Gunther’s rise from longshoreman in Vancouver to stockbroker, corporate financier and breeder of a Triple Crown winner is due in part to serendipity, hard work, some smart planning and, of course, no little good fortune.
His family, originally from Germany, had settled in Russia when, a century ago, his grandparents fled to Canada during the Bolshevik revolution. His father died when he was young and he moved to his aunt and uncle’s prairie farm in Alberta, where there were a couple of plough horses, which impressed upon him a love of horses.
When he returned to Vancouver, he worked on the docks. “It was all by hand in those days,” he recalled. “There was no such thing as a container and we’d carry 110lb sacks of flour into the ships.” Glory day: Without Parole wins at Royal Ascot; Tanya (third left, below) and John Gunther (right) at the presentation ceremony with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (far left)
His escape was the racecourse. “There was a racetrack right on the water – Hastings Park. It was a bull ring but in a beautiful setting. Most weekends I’d gamble most of my pay cheque. Later, I met a lovely lady who eventually became my wife, and she wanted a showjumper so we got one.”
At about the same time Gunther got into stockbroking and was posted to the Yukon Territory.
They still had the show-jumper, however. “We didn’t know she was a thoroughbred to start with and a friend, who had a stallion, talked me into breeding from her. The result was Pallascheck, who won at Hastings Park.”
Gunther had worked his way up to senior partner in his company and would go to Kentucky to buy the odd yearling. He ended up buying into Glennwood Farm there and bought it outright in 1989. Tanya, who worked in the City of London for 10 years, moved back to run it in 2007.
“Tanya plans the matings,” said Gunther. “She planned the mating of Justify. Without Parole was more of a team effort.”
Tanya said: “I put a bunch of ideas to him and some are harder to get past him than others!”
Gunther said: “Tanya didn’t want to sell either Justify or Vino Rosso [ninth in the Kentucky Derby]. They were the best looking yearlings but, having a small operation, you must sell the good ones to keep profitable.”
“And we’ve no regrets,” added Tanya. “We don’t have horses in California [where Justify was trained by Bob Baffert], so he’d have taken a very different path.”
Without Parole, who was bred in England, is out of an unraced and, at that stage, unproven mare Without You Babe, who like most Gunther horses is named after a phrase from a song. Without Parole is from Merle Haggard’s Mama Tried.
“It took a few glasses of wine with Juddmonte before I could pluck up the courage to ask if they would accept the mare for Frankel. They accepted the next day. Sometimes studs say your mare doesn’t qualify but Juddmonte are owner-breeders so I think they understood. By that stage Tamarkuz, [his half-brother, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Mile in 2016] had not come to fruition.
“Having sold Justify and Vino Rosso I hated the thought of selling him so I upped my reserve to 675,000gns, I’m happy we didn’t sell. When he missed the Guineas with a bruised foot it solved one problem – Justify and Vino Rosso were both running in the Kentucky Derby the same day.
“Winning the St James’s Palace at Royal Ascot was the most special day in my life. I’d been going there for 15 years. I’d always dreamed of having one good enough to run, let alone win, and our first runner ends up winning.
“The Americans said it was unpatriotic, having bred Justify, to say Ascot was better before it was reminded to them that I’m Canadian,” said Gunther. “But everything about it was special from the mare, getting Frankel, to Prince Harry and Meghan presenting the prize.”