Gun Runner’s meteoric rise continues with Early Voting

BALTIMORE – Preakness Stakes victor Early Voting continued the remarkable ascent into North America’s elite sires for Horse of the Year Gun Runner, who now has an American classic winner to boast from his record-setting first crop.

Early Voting was bred by Goncalo Torrealba’s Three Chimneys Farm, which campaigned Gun Runner with Winchell Thoroughbreds and now stands the son of Candy Ride in Midway, Ky. Early Voting, who races for Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables and trainer Chad Brown, held sway by 1 1/4 lengths over Preakness favorite Epicenter, who runs for Gun Runner’s connections, Winchell Thoroughbreds and trainer Steve Asmussen.

“The silver lining on [the defeat] is Gun Runner is probably the greatest sire of all time,” Asmussen said immediately after the Preakness. “He’s incredible.”

Gun Runner won 12 of 19 career starts, including six Grade 1/Group 1 wins, and got better as he got older, taking the Horse of the Year title at age 4 in 2017. His progeny have also been expected to develop with experience, but surprisingly, his first crop came out firing in 2021 to immediately put him on the map as a sire. Led by Eclipse Award champion Echo Zulu, who put together an unbeaten campaign for the Winchells and Asmussen with three Grade 1 wins, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Gun Runner was North America’s leading freshman sire of 2021.

Not only did he decimate the continent’s freshman earnings record with a bankroll of $4,315,980, surpassing the mark of $3,632,314 established by Uncle Mo in 2015. Gun Runner was also North America’s leading overall 2-year-old sire, with a sizable lead over none other than three-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief, who checked in at $2,971,018.

Only four American stallions have ever surpassed $2 million in earnings with their freshman crop at the races – Danzig, Tapit, Uncle Mo, and now Gun Runner. He is doing his best to emulate the trio before him by going on to build a legacy of continued success. Gun Runner is easily leading the second-crop sires list, but the more telling statistic is his placement among older, established sires.

Gun Runner is a respectable eighth on the North American general sires list; factoring in only North American earnings, he is sixth and less than $1.1 million behind secondplace Not This Time in a tight group.

Gun Runner is leading all North American sires with three Grade 1 winners on the season. He put two major prep winners into the Kentucky Derby in Santa Anita Derby winner Taiba and Arkansas Derby winner Cyberknife. Two weeks after those two were 12th and 18th, respectively, in the Kentucky Derby, Early Voting was a fresh horse for the Preakness, and became Gun Runner’s third Grade 1 winner.

Early Voting, a $200,000 selection by bloodstock agent Mike Ryan on behalf of Klarman at the 2020 Keeneland September yearling sale, has been a later developer, more in the mold of his sire.

“A little bit immature-looking horses,” Brown said of Gun Runner’s yearlings. “But goodlooking athletes.”

The Preakness was just the fourth start for Early Voting, who did not debut until December of his 2-year-old season. Like his sire, his development suggests there is plenty of upside.

In addition to Cyberknife, Early Voting, Echo Zulu, and Taiba, Gun Runner is the sire of a fifth Grade 1 winner from this first crop in Gunite, who took the Hopeful Stakes last summer at Saratoga. He is also represented by Grade 2 winners Pappacap and

Wicked Halo; stakes winners Booze Runner, Concept, Optionality, Red Run, and Shotgun Hottie; graded stakes-placed performers Beguine, McLaren Vale, Radio Days, and Running Legacy; and stakes-placed Bendoog, Costa Terra, Elusive Target, Joyrunner, Mystique Saboteur, and Runninsonofagun.

Gun Runner’s first yearlings to sell, including Early Voting, averaged $238,569 in 2020, compared to his debut stud fee of $70,000. Off his freshman success, the stallion’s stock skyrocketed; his fee for 2022 is $125,000, up from $50,000 in 2021, prior to his first runners. His quality of mares is rising accordingly – those booked to him for this year included newly minted Hall of Famer Beholder, Littleprincessemma, the dam of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah; and Chasing Yesterday, a Grade 1-winning daughter of Littleprincessemma. As a result, the stallion is likely to continue firing both on the racetrack and in the sales ring.

“We were fortunate enough to buy a handful of them in the first crop – they were affordable,” Brown said. “Now they’re probably out of our price range!”