Gun Runner's Half Sister Graduates at Fair Grounds

This column highlights the performances of maidens who have made no more than five starts and who either sold for more than $500,000 at public auction, have siblings that are graded/group winners, or have dams that are graded/group winners. BloodHorse research shows maiden winners, in particular, who meet these criteria are more likely to go on to be graded stakes winners.

Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots

Since Gun Runner  's titanic performances in the previous decade, his dam, Quiet Giant, a grade 2-winning Giant's Causeway mare, has produced only three modest winners from four foals to race. It's true, her first foal's feats on both the racetrack and in the breeding shed would be deemed nearly impossible to replicate. And so, with a lofty task in front of her, Pretty Ana became Quiet Giant's latest winner Feb. 13 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen must have been the obvious choice to train Pretty Ana. After all, Asmussen guided Gun Runner through his brilliant 19-start career. The son of Candy Ride  , who only got better with age, was crowned the 2017 Horse of the Year after scoring four straight grade 1 wins in the Stephen Foster, Whitney, Woodward, and Breeders' Cup Classic. He closed the curtain on his career with a victory in the 2018 Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) at Gulfstream Park.

After bankrolling more than $15 million, Gun Runner retired to stud at Three Chimneys Farm, where he's rewritten the North American records with the outstanding success of his progeny. Gun Runner has led the year-end standings for his stallion class from his three crops to hit the track.

Bred and campaigned by Three Chimneys Farm, Pretty Ana is the second youngest of Quiet Giant's offspring. Unraced as a 2-year-old, the Quality Road   filly joined Asmussen's Fair Grounds string last November to prepare for her debut.

Pretty Ana made her anticipated debut Jan. 18 in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight in New Orleans. Although she was third, she gained valuable experience, breaking inward and brushing the paint, and racing in between and outside of horses while navigating her way through traffic.

Her day 1 lessons paid off handsomely in her second go-round. Breaking on top this time, Pretty Ana sparred with a game Mischievousness to her outside and was passed by that foe turning for home. The little bay filly refused to quit, however, and fought back gallantly down the lane with the same tenacity that made her half brother a champion, finishing three-quarters of a length ahead of her rival under the wire.

Pretty Ana stopped the timer in 1:45.53 for the 1 1/16 miles on a fast main track.

Quiet Giant was also a winner at second asking as a 3-year-old going two turns. She currently has a full sibling weanling colt to Pretty Ana at the farm. She was not bred last year.