Gun Runner Has Last Work at Fair Grounds

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen’s emotions following Horse of the Year finalist Gun Runner 's last work over the Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots main track on the afternoon of Jan. 14 can best be described in one word: appreciative.

Appreciative of the multiple grade 1 winner's stellar career, appreciative of his ability to do things so easily, and appreciative of the track’s condition for his final work over a surface that he has familiarized himself with since the beginning of his 3-year-old campaign.

Sunday marked the final major workout for Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm's Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) winner in preparation for the Jan. 27 $16 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) . 

Because of cold temperatures in New Orleans, Fair Grounds racing officials reserved the racetrack for the son of Candy Ride  just shortly after noon. He stepped onto the racetrack under sunny skies with regular rider Florent Geroux in the irons and work mate Gettysburg alongside. The move was a six furlong breeze in 1:11 flat and clockers caught Gun Runner in eighth-mile fractions of :12 3/5, :24 2/5, :36 1/5, :48 1/5, :59 2/5 before galloping out seven furlongs in 1:23 4/5, and one mile in 1:37.

"He's an amazing horse and I thought that he went beautiful today," Asmussen said. "I'm very appreciative of (track superintendent) Pedro (Zavala) and (senior director of racing) Jason (Boulet). The racetrack was in just pristine, perfect condition for a work that we felt was this important."

"That was great," said Winchell Thoroughbreds' racing and bloodstock manager David Fiske, who was watching in Kentucky. "That was kind of a typical two-weeks-before-the-race Asmussen work. Usually that's a big work—kind of sharpen them up. He'll get another easy half-mile when he gets to Gulfstream, probably next Monday or something. But man, he looked pretty sharp to me."

Asmussen has conditioned Gun Runner throughout a career that has seen five grade 1 victories. He rounded out his 3-year-old campaign with his first grade 1 win in the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs in November 2016 and the next year returned to the Louisville oval for his second in the Stephen Foster Handicap. He added two more top-level wins to his resume at Saratoga Race Course in the Whitney Handicap and Woodward Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets, and then shipped West to win the Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar, a triumph that likely locked up his Horse of the Year honors.

Once Gun Runner's 4-year-old campaign concluded, and he shipped to the New Orleans oval to prepare for his swan song in the Pegasus World Cup, it really began to hit the Hall of Fame conditioner that the fantastic journey that Gun Runner has taken him and the rest of the barn on will soon come to an end.

"I have (felt emotional) all winter," Asmussen said. "I just want to focus on the positives and be appreciative of the horse and all that he has done for us. He's so special to himself and to all of us that have been lucky enough to have been around him. He is capable of doing things that we are not able to do for ourselves. It's amazing how a horse can make you feel."

Gun Runner is scheduled to fly to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Jan. 18.