Two Gun Runner Weanlings Soar on Day 3 at Keeneland

Two chestnut weanlings by Gun Runner   lit up the sales arena at Keeneland on Day 3 of the November Breeding Stock Sale, with a colt by the widely successful stallion purchased for $550,000 and a filly by the sire bringing $425,000. They were the two highest-priced weanlings of the session.

Dean De Renzo, a pinhooker and consignor with Randy Hartley, signed for the purchase of the colt (Hip 976) as AAA Thoroughbreds. Bred in Kentucky by Chisago Farm, the colt is the second foal out of the unplaced Union Rags   mare Twiga  and was consigned by Indian Creek

The dam's first foal, Joking Way  (Practical Joke  ) was a second-out maiden winner Oct. 30 at Churchill Downs for Winchell Thoroughbreds and trainer Steve Asmussen.

"I thought he was the best horse in the sale. I just love him," De Renzo said of Hip 976.

His sire power was a further draw. 

"Gun Runner is probably a horse (whose success) I have never seen in Thoroughbred horses, and I think we've seen only the beginning of him," De Renzo. "He's going to be bred to amazing mares, and this was a really great mare. So we're excited."

De Renzo said plans are not yet determined for what comes next for the new acquisition. De Renzo and Hartley are best known for their yearling-to-2-year-old pinhooks, though they also place some weanling purchases into yearling sales.

Current 3-year-old Taiba , another Gun Runner, was a yearling-to-2-year-old score for Hartley and De Renzo when he sold for $1.7 million to Zedan Racing Stables in 2021 at The Gulfstream Sale, Fasig-Tipton's select 2-year-olds in training sale. They had acquired him for $140,000 the preceding fall. Taiba became a dual grade 1 winner this year and was recently third in the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.

Also on Day 3 of the sale, AAA Thoroughbreds bought the Hunter Valley Farm-consigned Hip 761, a weanling Justify   filly, for $160,000, and the Indian Creek-consigned Hip 885, a weanling filly by Authentic  , for $260,000.

Earlier in the Wednesday session, a Gun Runner filly produced from the Malibu Moon  mare Mighty Moon  also proved popular in selling for $425,000 to Stonehaven Steadings. Co-breeder Pat Costello said he viewed the foal as a star from "the day she was born."

Hip 844, consigned by Costello and Gabriel Duignan's Paramount Sales, was the most expensive weanling filly of the session. Prospective buyers were drawn to her good looks and her sire, the leading first-crop sire of 2021 and currently the top second-crop stallion of 2022.

Bred in Kentucky by Costello's Drumkenny Farm and American Equistock, Hip 844 is related to three foals of racing age, two starters, but no winners. Her dam is a half sister to stakes-winning Planchart .

Aidan O'Meara of Stonehaven Steadings said the Gun Runner filly would return to the Keeneland sales ring next year. "She'll be back here in September," he said.

O'Meara said Stonehaven Steadings, a Central Kentucky breeding and sales operation, had a "very fortunate year and we put some of the finances back into the industry."

Also Wednesday, Stonehaven Steadings bought a Quality Road   weanling filly (Hip 787) for $300,000 from the Bedouin Bloodstock consignment and the Midnight Lute   mare Midnight Diva  (Hip 842) for $95,000 from Baccari Bloodstock.