THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2018 GUN RUNNER DRAWS SIRES WITH FIRST RUNNERS IN 2018: WHERE'S THE VALUE? by Chris McGrath TEN IN PEGASUS This is Part II of a three-part series exploring Kentucky sires that offer the best value. To read Part I, click here. It's hard to know quite what Cairo Prince (Pioneerof The Nile) (Airdrie, $25,000) must do to live up to his phenomenal sales debut: very few sires get two fee hikes before they have had a runner. He caught a rising tide in sharing a sire with American Pharoah and Classic Empire, and then blew everyone away with his physicals. Things have gone so dreamily so far that he is nearly on a hiding to nothing, but if enough of them can run then even his revised fee could easily hold up. Having started with the highest fee of his intake, Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song) (Three Chimneys, $30,000) punched his weight impressively with his first weanlings and his yearlings followed through to put him top of the averages, at $169,190. He represents a pretty obvious package, and soaked up a lot more action than some of his sire's other sons. (Click to continue to p7) Gun Runner breezing Monday at Gulfstream | Lauren King IN TDN EUROPE TODAY by Joe Bianca DIVERSITY AMONG 2YO CLASSIFICATIONS HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.--As the pills were pulled at Gulfstream The 2017 European 2-year-old Classifications boasts a broad variety of sires, including some not always associated with Park=s GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational draw Wednesday precocity. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. morning and more and more spots were filled without the name of prohibitive favorite and GI Breeders= Cup Classic hero Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) appearing next to a number, the tension built. Only stalls one, 10 and 11 were unspoken for when the chestnut=s name was finally called, and he was slotted in the best possible outcome of that trio when drawing 10-- more comfortable than the rail, but still wide enough to cause some agita for his connections Saturday. AYou never know to complain about a post position until after the race is run,@ said trainer Steve Asmussen. AHopefully, it=ll work out well. The horse has been training extremely good and is coming off his best race to date in the Classic. He=s settled in nicely here at Gulfstream and hopefully we=ll have a beautiful day Saturday and he=ll show his best side.@ Gun Runner, mired in quarantine issues at Fair Grounds a year ago, was forced to miss the inaugural Pegasus won by Arrogate (Unbridled=s Song), and he was second to that rival in the G1 Dubai World Cup. The rest of the season, however, belonged to the Winchell Thoroughbreds= colorbearer. Cont. p3 PRESIDENT & CO-PUBLISHER Barry Weisbord @barryweisbord [email protected] SR. V.P. & CO-PUBLISHER Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Thursday, January 25, 2018 Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN News and Features Editor Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN Assistant Editor Bobby Klatt ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Michelle Benson Behold! Spendthrift Farm’s four-time Eclipse champion Beholder (Henny Hughes) gave Photo Editor/Dir. of Distribution birth to her first foal, a colt by Coolmore stallion Uncle Mo, Wednesday at the Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Lexington, Kentucky nursery. "Beholder foaled a very nice bay colt last night by Uncle Mo. We couldn’t be happier with the result," said Spendthrift Farm General Manager Social Media Strategist Ned Toffey. Coolmore America Manager Dermot Ryan added, "We were delighted to Justina Severni hear the news of the arrival of Beholder’s Uncle Mo foal. He’s racing royalty already Director of Customer Service given everything his parents have achieved and the pedigree has already been given a Vicki Forbes [email protected] boost since the mating took place with the win of [Beholder’s half-brother] Mendelssohn at the Breeders’ Cup [Juvenile Turf]. It’s incredibly exciting to think what Marketing Manager Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen the future may hold." | Photo courtesy of Spendthrift Farm Director of Information Technology Ray Villa BOLT D’ORO, GOOD MAGIC CO-TOP TJC RANKINGS 13 [email protected] Eclipse finalists Bolt d’Oro (Medaglia d’Oro) and Good Magic (Curlin) were co-toppers of The Jockey Club’s annual Top Bookkeeper Terry May 2-Year-Old Rankings released Wednesday. [email protected] WORLDWIDE INFORMATION TODAY’S GRADED STAKES International Editor EST Race Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN 11:50a Cape Verde-G2, MEY [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 13 • THETDN.COM THURSDAY • JANUARY 25, 2018 Gun Runner Draws Ten in Pegasus (cont. from p1) Gun Runner returned Stateside after the Dubai World Cup and went on to capture the GI Stephen Foster H., GI Whitney S., GI Woodward S. and the Classic, a procession certain to earn him a Horse of the Year statuette at Thursday night=s Eclipse Awards. Now, he has one final mountain to climb, in the world=s richest race, before retiring to stud for the spring. AYou weren=t going into Breeders= Cup week thinking about what was next, that was it,@ Asmussen said. AEverybody knew what was on the line as far as Horse of the Year that day and he came through. Then you regroup and come here--are you in the same spot, are you better? Those are to be determined Saturday.@ Gulfstream doesn=t run many races at its full-circuit distance of 1 1/8 miles on the dirt, and even rarer is one contested with a full field of 12 horses, like the Pegasus. But the limited data available suggests that being marooned in a double-digit post position in two-turn dirt races, where there is a very short run-up to the clubhouse turn, spells trouble. Just from this current meet, posts 10-14 are a combined 1-for-34 in Gulfstream dirt routes through Sunday, while showing a more respectable 8-for-69 record in dirt sprints. AThis is another racetrack for him to run at,@ Asmussen said. AThe short run to the first turn, the wide draw? He=s been overcoming things his whole life. We heard about, for the six weeks we went out to California, it was always [about] what he hadn=t done. Well, he hasn=t won here and the outside isn=t good, but we get to run Gun Runner, so we=re OK.@ Asmussen also made sure to note that having the presumptive Horse of the Year came due to the willingness of Gun Runner=s owners to race the well-bred colt at four after he scored a potential stallion-making win in the GI Clark H. to close out his sophomore campaign. AThey need to be commended for the sportsmen that they are,@ Asmussen said. ARon Winchell, the Winchell Thoroughbred team, David Fiske, Three Chimneys and Mr. [Goncalo] Torrealba. I=m very appreciative of them allowing us to be in that position, because he was worth a lot of money with his pedigree as a Grade I winner at the end of his 3-year-old year. It was a sportsmanlike decision and they were rewarded.@ Elsewhere in the draw, the Jorge Navarro-trained pair of Sharp Azteca (Freud) and War Story (Northern Afleet) pulled posts four and eight, respectively. Right outside of Sharp Azteca--who was made the distant second choice at 6-1 on the morning line behind Gun Runner=s 4-5--is Collected (City Zip), an 8-1 chance who captured the GI Pacific Classic last summer before running a game second in the Breeders= Cup Classic. Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 13 • THETDN.COM THURSDAY • JANUARY 25, 2018 One place behind him that day was Bob Baffert stablemate West Coast (Flatter), the GI Travers S. winner and Eclipse champion 3-year-old male finalist. The Gary and Mary West-owned bay will be a bit awkwardly situated in post two, while also being quoted at 8-1. Stellar Wind (Curlin), the champion mare who was thought to be retired after finishing last in the GI Breeders= Cup Distaff, but was instead sent back into training after being purchased by Coolmore for $6 million at the Keeneland November sale, is 30-1 from post three. Toast of New York (Thewayyouare), the comebacker who has just one start since finishing third in the 2014 Classic, sits at 20-1 and drew the nine-hole, while 2017 Clark winner Seeking the Soul (Perfect Soul {Ire}) will break from stall 11 and is 25-1. WEDNESDAY=S PEGASUS TRACK REPORT by Ben Massam HALLANDALE BEACH, FL - As was the case in 2017 with the inaugural GI Pegasus World Cup, Wednesday morning represented a calm before the storm of sorts, with a number of contenders slated to arrive in the ensuing 24 hours. Of the horses already present in Hallandale, race favorite Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) was early to hit the track, galloping under the cover of darkness around 5:30 a.m.