Gun Runner in a runaway
Gun Runner (above), a $2 million career earner before stepping into the Oaklawn Park starting gate, picked up an extra $300,000 for Winchell Thorougbreds with an eye-popping performance in the Razorback Handicap.
Gun Runner, one of last season’s top 3-year-olds, not only won the $500,000 Grade III race by 5¾ lengths over Hawaakom, but his winning time of 1:40.97 was the fastest-run Razorback since Lost Code was timed in 1:40.40 in 1988. The second-fastest time since Lost Code’s victory was posted by 1992 Kentucky Derby winner Lil E. Tee, who won the 1993 Razorback in 1:41.40.
HOT SPRINGS — The favorite romped, as expected.
Gun Runner’s burst to the lead from the inside post looked easy Monday at Oaklawn Park, and it only served as a precursor to how dominant the 1-5 favorite would be during the remainder of Razorback Handicap.
Gun Runner ($2.40 to win) took the lead after 10 yards and was never threatened en route to a 5¾-length victory in the $500,000 Grade III race. Hawaakom finished second and Domain’s Rap third in a field of six.
“Last year we learned to let Gun Runner just be Gun Runner, and the success has come to him,” said trainer Steve Asmussen, who thanked Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm for allowing Gun Runner to compete as a 4-year-old. “With his pedigree and his Grade I win last year, it’s very sporting of them to give us another year.”
Gun Runner’s availability for racing at Oaklawn or anywhere outside of Louisiana was in jeopardy until Feb. 6, when Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans lifted a six-week quarantine put in place to prevent a potential outbreak of equine herpesvirus type 1.
Asmussen had considered racing Gun Runner in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup run at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla., on Jan. 28, but the quarantine removed it as an option.
Monday, Gun Runner led by 1½ lengths over southern California shipper Blue Tone through a quarter-mile in 23.18 and by 2 lengths through a half in 46.88.
Hawaakom was 2½ lengths behind Gun Runner after 6 furlongs in 1:11.29.
Gun Runner ran away from his competition in the stretch to finish in 1:40.97, the fastest winning time since Lost Code won the 1988 Razorback in 1:40.40.
“This horse just gets better and better,” Gun Runner jockey Florent Geroux said. “He was in every fight last year, and he feels even better this year.”
Gun Runner, a son of Candy Ride, had not raced since his victory in the Grade I Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs on Nov. 25, his 10th consecutive graded-stakes attempt. The streak started with a fourth-place finish in the Grade II Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes as a 2-year-old in October of 2015. There were victories in the Grade II Risen Star Stakes and the Grade II Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds in the spring, leading up to a third-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.
That 10-race run included 5 wins, 2 seconds, and 2 thirds and built Gun Runner’s career purse earnings to $2,037,800. After the Derby, Gun Runner won the Grade III Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill, and posted second-place finishes in the Grade II Pennsylvania Derby and Grade I Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile before winning the Grade I Clark.
“He’s a fast horse,” Asmussen said. “We’re very happy to get this race done. We’ve always been confident that this horse would get better with time.”