Peter Callahan

Spendthrift and Repole Team Up for $1.15M Gun Runner Colt

Three Chimneys Farm's Gun Runner threw down the gauntlet at Wednesday's session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale with a $1.15-million colt to lead the day's top-priced receipts about two-thirds of the way through Wednesday's selling. Hip 614, bred in Kentucky by Runnymede Farm, LLC and Peter J. Callahan, is out of Margate Gardens (Speightstown), a full-sister to GSW Bridgetown. Runneymede consigned the Apr. 28-foaled chestnut, who was purchased by Mike Repole's Repole Stables and Spendthrift Farm. The mare's current 2-year-old, Wilson Q (Constitution), was second in the Bashford Manor...

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A Landmark Day in a Landmark Year

Who knows what kind of Turf, never mind what kind of world, may be inherited by such of his 15 grandchildren as may themselves be blessed to reach the landmark they celebrate with Catesby W. Clay on Tuesday? But someday they will look back on the apt emergence, in his 100th year, of a fourth Kentucky Derby winner raised on the farm founded by his own grandfather, and see that the heritage of the race itself gained at least as much from Runnymede, in 2023, as the other way round....

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Swiss Skydiver Delivers First Foal in Japan

Champion Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) delivered her first foal, a filly by Europe's 2014 Horse of the Year Kingman (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) on Feb. 15 at Northern Farm in Japan, according to the farm's Twitter and Facebook accounts. The 6-year-old mare, who defeated males in the 2020 GI Preakness S. and also won the GI Alabama S. and GI Beholder Mile, was purchased for $4.7 million by Katsumi Yoshida at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Fall Mixed Sale and was then sent to England, where she was bred to Kingman at Juddmonte...

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Champion Swiss Skydiver to be Sold at Fasig-Tipton

Peter J. Callahan's reigning Eclipse champion 3-year-old filly Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil--Expo Gold, by Johannesburg) will be offered at Fasig-Tipton's The November Sale, also known as the Night of the Stars, according to a press release from trainer Kenny McPeek. Runnymede Farm will serve as agent. Swiss Skydiver is currently out of training after finishing off the board in the Aug. 28 GI Personal Ensign S. "It's been an honor to train her over the last three years," said McPeek. "She's sound and healthy. Her owner, Peter Callahan, and I thought...

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McPeek Bucks the Trend, Wins the Preakness

The Week in Review, by Bill Finley Trainer Ken McPeek had set himself up for second guessing when he decided to run Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) in the GI Preakness S.. Not only would she have to face males, the Preakness would be her ninth race of the year and Pimlico would be the ninth track she has competed at in 2020. With a start in October, she would have raced during every month on the calendar but April. By modern standards, it has been a bruising schedule and one that...

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Swiss Skydiver Gets the Better of Authentic in Stirring Preakness Stretch Drive

Only five fillies had managed to take home the blanket of black-eyed susans in the previous 144 runnings of the GI Preakness S. and the last to do so was Hall of Famer Rachel Alexandra, who beat GI Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird by a length in the 2009 renewal. However, in 2020, a year of upsets and the unconventional, a filly took down the Derby winner yet again with Oaks runner-up Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) getting the better of Derby hero Authentic (Into Mischief) in an epic stretch battle...

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Swiss Skydiver Remains Possible for Preakness

GI Alabama winner Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) remains possible to contest the GI Preakness S. at Pimlico Oct. 3. "It's going to depend on who shows up," said trainer Ken McPeek. "We are also nominating her to the [GI] Spinster [Oct. 4] and she's been invited to the [GI] QEII [Oct. 10]. We're shopping it, that's all. We have three good choices. My strong preference would have been a 3-year-old filly Grade I [on dirt], but there isn't one out there." Both alternatives to the Preakness, the nine-furlong Spinster for fillies...

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Swiss Skydiver Confirmed for Oaks

Saturday's GI Alabama S. romper Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) will contest the Sept. 4 GI Longines Kentucky Oaks, according to the New York Racing Association press department. Trainer Kenny McPeek indicated immediately after the Alabama that that would likely be the next spot for the Peter Callahan colorbearer, but hadn't at that time ruled out facing males in the GI Kentucky Derby. The GII Gulfstream Park Oaks, GIII Fantasy S. and GII Santa Anita Oaks winner and GII Toyota Blue Grass S. runner-up was doing well Sunday according to McPeek's assistant...

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Blue Grass a Possibility for Swiss Skydiver

Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) has been nominated for both the GI Central Bank Ashland S. and GII Toyota Blue Grass S., both to be run July 11 at Keeneland, and trainer Ken McPeek said he will give strong consideration to both races for his 3-year-old filly. "I'll probably run her in the Ashland, but there are a lot of things to consider," McPeek said. "For one, I have another nice filly for the Ashland in Envoutante (Uncle Mo). With all these 3-year-old races being run around the same time, I'd imagine...

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