Grade 2 Winner and Millionaire Earner Gunnevera Retired

Multiple graded stakes winner Gunnevera, unraced since a third-place finish in the Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airline (G1) in March 2019, has been retired, said Alex Sano, trainer Antonio Sano's son and assistant.

News of his retirement was first reported by Daily Racing Form.

A winner of six of 21 starts and more than $5.5 million, Gunnevera resumed training twice in Florida following last year's Dubai World Cup at Meydan, first last summer and then this spring. But he didn't breeze in his customary manner, Alex Sano said, and ultimately the decision was made to retire him. He last worked March 21, covering five furlongs in 1:04 at Gulfstream Park West.

He was a four-time stakes winner over his career, taking the Saratoga Special Stakes (G2) and $1,000,000 Delta Downs Jackpot Stakes (G3) at age 2 before adding the Xpressbet Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) and Tangelo Stakes at 3. As an older horse, many of his better performances came in defeat, such as when he was the runner-up in both the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) and Woodward Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) in 2018.

Other efforts against top-class company resulted in a seventh in the 2017 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum Brands! (G1), a fifth in that year's Preakness Stakes (G1), and a third in the 2018 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1). He twice ran in the Dubai World Cup, finishing eighth in 2018 before his third last year.

Through the 2017 Preakness, he raced for Peacock Racing Stables before his official ownership changed. His last start came for owner Salomon Del Valle after other starts for Margoth.

Bred and consigned by Brandywine Farm and Stephen Upchurch, the 6-year-old son of Dialed In  was purchased by Antonio Sano as agent for $16,000 at the 2015 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

Sano began training regularly in the U.S. in 2010 after based in his native Venezuela.

"Regardless of the economic side, which was a huge thing, this horse opened my dad's door and my family's door, all over the United States," said Alex Sano. "We (made) so many connections with people, not just in the U.S. but worldwide by going to Dubai twice and by attending the Derby and the Breeder's Cup Classic. We have such an emotional attachment to him (that) I personally have never had with another horse."

Gunnevera is currently stabled at a farm in Ocala while arrangements for a stud career are pursued, Sano said.