Written by Trent Masenhelder
Cover image courtesy of Three Chimneys Farm
Early last month, it was revealed that Three Chimneys’ boom sire Gun Runner (USA) would be available this spring on Southern Hemisphere time at a fee of US$65,000 (AU$$98,000). If that wasn’t exciting enough, it was announced that Three Chimneys would put up a $500,000 bonus to any progeny of Gun Runner that wins the G1 Golden Slipper S.
A six-time Grade 1-winner, who earned close to US$16 million (AU$24 million) in prizemoney, Gun Runner has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the stallion ranks in North America. Off a stud fee of US$70,000 (AU$105,000), he produced six individual Grade 1 scorers from his first book of 127 foals. His top-flight winners include 2022 Preakness S. hero Early Voting (USA) and 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ winner Echo Zulu (USA).
Gun Runner (USA) | Standing at Three Chimneys Farm
Emirates Park is one Australian breeder that has been taken by Gun Runner’s fledgling career at stud, and it sent the Group 2 victress One More Honey (Onemorenomore) - a half-sister to the 2021 G1 Kingsford-Smith Cup winner Vega One (Lope De Vega {Ire}), as well as the 2018 G1 Golden Slipper S. heroine Estijaab (Snitzel), to be covered by the son of Candy Ride (Arg).
Earlier this week, One More Honey foaled down a beautiful Gun Runner filly at Denali Stud in Kentucky.
“One More Honey foaled with us here at Denali Stud the other morning, she had a nice Gun Runner filly,” Conrad Bandoroff, vice president at Denali Stud, told TTR AusNZ.
“One More Honey foaled with us here at Denali Stud the other morning, she had a nice Gun Runner filly.” - Conrad Bandoroff
“She has a lot of quality and smoothness about her, which is something that we’ve seen from Gun Runner, but is also a nice representation of the mare from what I understand that (Emirates Park’s General Manager Bryan Carlson) tells me. She’s a mare that usually gets quality foals and we’re excited to have her.
“It’s a sign of how global the marketplace has become; you can send mares over here to be bred to Gun Runner, you can send mares to England to be bred to Frankel, and you’re seeing the success of that in the Australasian marketplace.”
Conrad Bandoroff | Image courtesy of Denali Stud
The other mare Emirates Park has with Denali is the G1 Golden Slipper S. winner Estijaab and she is in foal to Gun Runner.
“I got to know Bryan Carlson while I was on Flying Start through my externship with Magic Millions,” Bandoroff explained.
“The introduction really came through James Dawson at Magic Millions, who I was fortunate to work with, under the bloodstock team at Magics with Barry Bowditch and Vin Cox at the time.
“Bryan had reached out saying that he was seen to send a few mares over to Kentucky to be bred to Gun Runner on Southern Hemisphere time.
“Bryan (Carlson) had reached out saying that he was seen to send a few mares over to Kentucky to be bred to Gun Runner on Southern Hemisphere time.” - Conrad Bandoroff
“The mares that Emirates Park had identified to send to him were two high-calibre mares; One More Honey, who has been a good producer (her Not A Single Doubt colt made $1.8 million at the 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, while her Zoustar colt fetched $1 million at the 2022 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale), and Estijaab, the Golden Slipper winner.
“The original thought was to foal out both mares, breed them back and then send them back to Australia. It was decided that Estijaab would be sent back to Australia for her to foal down in Australia and be bred, but One More Honey stayed here and had a quality filly.
One More Honey when racing | Image courtesy of Sportpix
“It’s been a fun thing for me to be able to still be able to keep some of those contacts that I was able to make on the Flying Start, and to be able to do some business together over here has been very fulfilling and gratifying.”
Gun Runner already has six elite-level winners and 19 stakes winners.
“Obviously, it’s an outcross sireline and what Gun Runner is doing here is nothing short of amazing, he’s become a phenomenal stallion and really taken our market by storm,” Bandoroff said.
