Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
ARROGATE, GUN RUNNER RIVALRY IN NEXT PHASE
Champions Gun Runner and Arrogate have always been tied together, and their matchups on the racetrack and, now, in the commercial arena with their progeny, have always drawn interest. The theme continues as their first juveniles come to hand this season.
The pair hail from different branches of the same sire line – Arrogate descends from Mr. Prospector’s son Fappiano through Unbridled and Unbridled’s Song; Gun Runner traces to Fappiano via his great-grandson Candy Ride. But while Gun Runner was well regarded as a juvenile and emerged as a multiple graded stakes winner early in his 3-year-old year – taking the Louisiana Derby before finishing third in the Kentucky Derby – Arrogate was a later bloomer. On Derby Day 2016, he had just a debut third to his credit.
Arrogate went on a tear the rest of that season, romping in the Grade 1 Travers in record-setting fashion and besting California Chrome in the Breeders’ Cup Classic to earn the divisional Eclipse Award. Gun Runner, third behind Arrogate in the Travers, also finished the year as a Grade 1 winner against older horses, winning the Clark Handicap. Early the following season, Arrogate won the inaugural Pegasus World Cup, then ran down Gun Runner to win the Dubai World Cup, completing a sweep of the world’s three richest races.
Arrogate never won again. Gun Runner never lost again. The latter earned 2017 Horse of the Year honors by winning the Stephen Foster, Whitney, Woodward, and Breeders’ Cup Classic, all Grade 1 events. Arrogate finished in a dead heat for fifth in that Classic.
Gun Runner took the Pegasus World Cup early the following year in his career finale before retiring to co-owner Three Chimneys Farm with a record of 12 wins from 19 starts and earnings of $15,988,500. Arrogate headed home to Juddmonte Farm with seven wins from 11 starts and a bankroll of $17,422,600, a record for a North American runner.
Both were highly anticipated as young stallions and have continued to be cast as rivals as their first mares in foal, first weanlings, and, last fall, first yearlings stepped into sales rings.
“Arrogate and Gun Runner are the obvious two,” Mark Taylor of Taylor Made Sales said in evaluating the class of stallions. “Both were tremendous racehorses and are throwing very nice physicals from what I have seen.”
But last year, the two champions’ paths diverged in shocking fashion, as the world was stunned in early June by the news of Arrogate’s death at age 7. He leaves behind three crops of foals who will surely be under added scrutiny, as opportunities to carry on his legacy are now limited.
“We will never forget the ride Arrogate took us on,” said Garrett O’Rourke, general manager for Juddmonte’s American operation. “Those four amazing races established him as one of the great racehorses of our time, breaking two track records, taking down champion California Chrome in a battle for the ages, and then running by Gun Runner in an otherworldly performance in Dubai. We hope that the heartbreak of losing him so young can be soothed by proudly watching the achievement of his runners.”
Arrogate was felled by an illness that caused severe neurological symptoms. The stallion had been coming to the end of a successful third breeding season when he developed a sore neck, causing Juddmonte to suspend him from the breeding shed. Later that week, he fell in his stall and was unable to rise. He was transported to the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute for treatment and extensive testing. The stallion was still unable to stand after four days, and the decision was made to euthanize him.
“His will to fight, so valuable to him on the racetrack, became a challenge in his care,” a statement from Juddmonte read. “When serious secondary health issues set in, the decision was made to put him to sleep.”
Arrogate’s three books of mares numbered 145, 149, and 139, respectively, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. All three were stellar, as Juddmonte supported him with its own outstanding broodmare band, and he attracted additional support from other major outfits. The attention at the moment is, of course, focused on his first book, which will be his first juveniles at the 2-year-old sales and races.
Juddmonte’s contributions to that book included multiple Grade 1 winners Sight seek and Paul as silver lining, Kentucky Oaks winner Flute and her stakes performing daughter Filimbi, and Rising Tornado, the dam of champion Close Hatches.
Other standouts in the book included two-time Eclipse Award champion Songbird; champion She Be Wild; Grade 1 winners Artemis Agrotera, By the Moon, Centre Court, Coffee Clique, Funny Moon, Lady of Fifty, Megahertz, and Shop Again; Stormy Sunday, dam of champion Hansen; Beer Baroness, dam of Canadian champion Ria Antonia; Grade 2 winner Just whistle dixie, dam of Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner New Year’s Day and three other graded stakes winners; Lucas Street, dam of Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Wavell Avenue; Deceptive, dam of two-time Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Mizdirection; and the dams of Grade 1 winners Denman’s Call, Iotapa, Mani Bhavan, Weep No More, and Zazu.
Gun Runner also got a solid first book of mares at Three Chimneys, supported by co-owner Winchell Thoroughbreds, which sent him Broodmare of the Year Fun House, the dam of Kentucky Oaks and Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner and champion Untapable and Grade 1 winner Paddy O’Prado.
In all, the stallion covered 171 mares in his first season, including Ms. Cornstalk, dam of Canadian Horse of the Year Biofuel and champion Tu Endie Wei; Alternate, dam of Grade 1 winner Higher Power and millionaire and solid sire Alternation; Brazilian champion Ana Luisa; Chilean champion Wapi; Canadian champions Embur’s Song, Roxy Gap, and Youcan’tcatchme; graded stakes winner Lady Shipman, who is now the dam of Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Golden Pal; Grade 1 winners Love and Pride, Malibu Prayer, Pure Clan, and Sweet Lulu; and the dams of Grade 1 winners Brilliant Speed, Finley’ s lucky charm, Halladay, Hard Aces, and My Conquestadory.
“Gun Runner covered an exceptional book of quality mares, which should lay the foundation for him as a successful sire,” Three Chimneys chairman Goncalo Torrealba said.
Arrogate was represented by eight mares in foal from his first book that sold for an average of $417,500. Four resulting first-crop weanlings later sold for an average of $311,250 in 2019.
Meanwhile, Gun Runner had 10 mares in foal sell for an average of $367,500 and eight weanlings average $344,375. Those were against advertised stud fees of $75,000 for Arrogate and $70,000 for Gun Runner.
Gun Runner got a flashy feather in his cap early, as he was represented by the most expensive weanling sold at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale, a boutique upper-market auction. The filly, out of multiple Grade 1 winner Love and Pride, was purchased for $750,000 by bloodstock agent Mike Ryan.
“They’re bigger than I thought they were going to be, to be honest,” Ryan said of Gun Runner’s offspring. “He looks magnificent, but the thing that impressed me about him was the way he moved on the racetrack. He looked like a cheetah – his feet barely touched the ground. But his breeding, I think there’s some [broodmare sire] Giant’s Causeway coming through there – [his weanlings] have size and scope and bone and substance. I’m liking what I’m seeing.
“He was as good a runner as we’ve seen in recent years,” Ryan continued. “He turned out to be a hell of an older horse. I wish people would keep more 3-year-olds in training as older horses.”
Gun Runner and Arrogate both fared well in the tumultuous yearling market of 2020, with a domestic buying bench trending toward proven stallions. On the year, Gun Runner was represented by 51 yearlings sold for an average of $238,569, and Arrogate had 43 sold for an average of $227,049.
Gun Runner started the season with a $500,000 filly sold at the Fasig-Tipton selected yearling showcase, which stepped in to replace the company’s boutique Saratoga sales on the upended schedule. He then had five yearlings sell for $500,000 or more at the Keeneland September yearling sale, led by a $775,000 colt and two $750,000 yearlings, including Fun House’s colt.
Arrogate had three yearlings sell for prices greater than $500,000 at Keeneland, led by a $750,000 half-brother to Grade 1 winner Weep No More. Gun Runner and Arrogate finished first and second by both gross and average among their class of first-crop sires at Keeneland September, considered a market bellwether. Among all stallions with three or more yearlings sold, they were eighth and ninth, respectively, by average.
As many of Gun Runner and Arrogate’s foals were either bred to race by their connections, or were purchased by end users at yearling sales, there may be a smaller sampling of their offspring, relative to other sires, at this season’s 2-yearolds in training sales. However, those who do appear in the early catalogs continue to represent their sires’ stellar books.
Arrogate has three juveniles cataloged in the season opener, the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s March sale of 2-year-olds in training, while Gun Runner has two. At Gulfstream Park, where both won the Pegasus World Cup, Arrogate has eight juveniles in the boutique Fasig-Tipton selected sale, where horses are carefully selected based on pedigree and conformation, while Gun Runner is in near-lockstep with seven. Arrogate’s octet includes a filly out of champion She Be Wild and halfbrothers to Grade 1 winners Denman’s Call and Mani Bhavan. Gun Runner’s group, meanwhile, includes the colt out of champion Ana Luisa and a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Finley’sluckycharm.