Breeding Digest: Gun Runner Meaning Business

As we acknowledged a week ago, the contributions made by these horses to what we can turn into a narrative are wholly random. But it has meanwhile felt almost as though Gun Runner wanted to prove otherwise, after watching Into Mischief's feisty response to the spectacle of Not This Time stealing an early march in the general sires' table.

Gun Runner's role in that exchange was to retreat sulkily to the wings, lamenting the injury to his top Classic prospect Paladin. Well, he's obviously too good for that. On the last big weekend of Classic trials, he served notice that he remains no less eligible than before to contest the succession–as and when Into Mischief yields his crown–with the other pretender.

Further Ado's success in the GI Toyota Blue Grass Stakes made him look highly eligible to fill the vacancy left by Paladin at Churchill; and for good measure his sire also came up with Oaks candidates on either coast, Meaning in the GII Santa Anita Oaks and Always a Runner in the GIII Gazelle Stakes.

We examined Further Ado's antecedents after his success in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, so won't reprise them here, beyond applauding John and Debby Oxley for producing such a good horse from “in-house” matings for their champion Beautiful Pleasure (Maudlin) and her unraced daughter To Dream About. The latter was by the Oxleys' Derby winner Monarchos; and her date with their GI Hopeful Stakes winner Sky Mesa produced Further Ado's graded stakes-placed dam Sky Dreamer.

That's a pedigree imprinted with that blue-and-yellow checkerboard, even if Further Ado carries the silks of Spendthrift Farm–home, of course, to the seven-time champion whose hegemony is finally being menaced. And actually Into Mischief has actually given a helping hand to the Three Chimneys top gun, in that Meaning is the first starter out of his daughter Figure of Speech.

Figure of Speech was a Saratoga debut winner and GI Spinaway Stakes third in a light career, making her much the most distinguished among a handful of otherwise ordinary winners out of the unraced Starlight Lady (Elusive Quality). That is consistent with the quality of her other covers, which were fairly modest overall. Where one might have expected rather more is in the parallel production, among her siblings, as they were nearly all by top stallions. In fact the first three were by Storm Cat, access to whom had been earned by their dam Colcon (Pleasant Colony) with no fewer than five Grade III wins on turf. A couple of her foals did achieve a placing at a modest stakes level, but overall Colcon was such a disappointing producer that she was discarded at 14 for $44,000 and at 19, to someone with a heart, for $2,500.

What made her production all the more disappointing is the fact that Colcon was a half-sister to GI Jockey Club Gold Cup and GI Charles H. Strub Stakes winner Flying Continental (Flying Paster). Both had been bred by Elmendorf Farm out of its homebred stakes winner Continental Girl, whose parents had both raced over the water. Her sire Transworld was actually bred at Elmendorf, but won the G1 Irish St Leger. The few who remember him will do so primarily as sire of the champion steeplechaser Lonesome Glory. Her dam Seductive (GB), a half-sister to English Classic winner Night Off (GB), additionally produced millionaire Super Moment (Big Spruce), who won the Strub nine years before Flying Continental.

So while there are some classy embers to be stoked up in this pedigree, they had been getting pretty cold until one mare caught a fortunate upgrade from Into Mischief, while he was just about still within mortal reach, and their daughter did the same with Gun Runner.

The latter is now up to $5.7 million for the year, putting him fourth in the early running set by Not This Time on $10.75 million. But his 10 stakes winners, including seven at graded level, tell his rival (with seven and five, respectively) to stay on his mettle as they head into the Classics.

Always and Everywhere

Always A Runner, similarly, is the first starter for her dam, Always Carina (Malibu Moon), but the fact that she cost $1.05 million as a yearling–breeder Three Chimneys staying in for a piece with Douglas Scharbauer–tells you that her page held up fine.

She's out of GII Mother Goose Stakes runner-up Always Carina (Malibu Moon), a half-sister to GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Structor (Palace Malice), out of Miss Always Ready (More Than Ready). The latter, a maiden winner in a light career, had cost Three Chimenys $400,000 as a 2-year-old in 2014, as a sister to GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies' Turf winner More Than Real. And the latter has certainly been doing some useful parallel work, through her daughter Miss Debutante (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), dam of G1 Golden Slipper winner Lady of Camelot (Aus) (Written Tycoon {Aus}), plus two other group winners Down Under.

Always a Runner | Sarah Andrew

But while this may not seem the most obvious theme of last weekend, I would like to include Malibu Moon, damsire of Always a Runner, as just one strand of a series of results that show just how wide an imprint has been left by his sire A.P. Indy.

Here's just a sample. Further Ado's dam is by his grandson Sky Mesa. GII Wood Memorial winner Albus and GII Beaumont Stakes winner A Fine Chardonnay (Maclean's Music) are both out of mares by his gorgeous son Bernardini. The grandsire of GI Santa Anita Derby winner So Happy (Runhappy), Super Saver, is out of an A.P. Indy mare. GI Ashland Stakes winner Percy's Bar is not only out of a Super Saver mare, but also by A.P. Indy's grandson Upstart.

That's what we mean by a breed-shaping sire. It doesn't matter what color a page might be, on the surface, the same tones keep recurring below.

Taking the Blame for a Happy Ending

The abovementioned So Happy could yet add a startling sequel to the saga of Runhappy, which did not appear to have ended very happily when he was sold last year to South Korea as his extrovert owner got out of the business.

The best horse on So Happy's page is a fast one: Silver Wagon (Wagon Limit), winner of the GI Hopeful Stakes and GI Carter Handicap. His half-sister by the speed influence Gilded Time is So Happy's granddam, so we know that something special must have intervened between her and Runhappy to stretch a horse out into a Derby prospect.

And that something is special indeed: the most precocious broodmare sire of recent times, Blame, whose daughter So Cunning is the dam of So Happy. So Cunning actually drew on the speed in her family to impress in her first two starts over just six furlongs, before derailing on her third, but we know how Blame can pack sheer breadth of class into his daughters.

So Happy | Benoit

So Happy was initially sold for just $12,000 as a weanling, but a Derby breeder's prize would amply satisfy his veteran breeder Leverett Miller, who with his late wife Linda, has cultivated this line for four generations.

Of course, Runhappy managed to get a Derby horse out of a Pleasant Tap mare in Smile Happy. Back then a lot of airtime was given to the two-turn influences lurking behind Runhappy, fast as he was, but ultimately Smile Happy dropped back in distance after his midfield finish at Churchill. With a Blame mare, however, all bets are off.

To me, the key to his distaff influence is that both he and his sire Arch represent fabulous female families. But those who insist on pegging everything on stallions will note that Arch's grandsire Roberto stands opposite Nijinsky, as sire of Blame's granddam. Those two Epsom Derby winners are stout enough brands to smuggle some stretch into any mare, however undiluted her own speed.