Unbeaten Always A Runner shines under the lights in Kentucky Oaks
On one of the morning works shows leading up to the GI Kentucky Oaks, trainer Chad Brown was asked if his unbeaten 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' Always A Runner (USA) (Gun Runner {USA}) was, perhaps, flying into the race under the radar.
“When I work her tomorrow, they'll be talking about her,” he said confidently.
Everybody will still be talking about her after the first Friday in May now, too.
Always A Runner made it a perfect three-for-three with a powerful, come-from-behind, one and a quarter-length victory in the first Kentucky Oaks held in primetime beneath the lights before a crowd of 103,290 at a chilly Churchill Downs. Meaning (USA) (Gun Runner {USA}) completed the exacta for her leading sire. Counting Stars (USA) (Honor AP {USA}) was third.
The Douglas Scharbauer and Three Chimneys Farm colourbearer, a last-out winner of Aqueduct's GIII Gazelle Stakes at “70%, if I'm being generous,” per Brown, was off as the narrowest of third choices at odds of 5-1.
Always A Runner raced in a great spot in eighth beneath Jose Ortiz as 'Rising Star' Explora (USA) (Blame {USA}) showed the way through sharp fractions of 23.08s and 46.85s. She began to launch with a flashy sweep approaching the quarter pole. The GII Santa Anita Oaks heroine Meaning gained a narrow advantage over GIII Honeybee Stakes winner Explora in the stretch, but Always A Runner was just getting going and came from over the top to win going away.
Chad Brown | Image courtesy of Sarah Andrew
This is the first Kentucky Oaks victory for Brown and second for Ortiz, who scored in 2019 with Serengeti Empress.
"She's (Always A Runner) overcome so much and to be able to be rewarded this way is unbelievable." - Chad Brown
“I'm so proud of this horse,” Brown said. “She's overcome so much and to be able to be rewarded this way is unbelievable. She had a very serious case of pneumonia. When horses experience things like that, we just had to take things day by day. Her career was really up in the air. I never imagined she'd get to this day.”
Ortiz added, “Around the far turn, she really started coming with a big run. She had to really work hard to get by those fillies on the lead. It's such an incredible experience to win the Oaks. It was a great day of racing and to cap it off in the Oaks, it was amazing.”
"It was a great day of racing and to cap it off in the Oaks, it was amazing." - Jose Ortiz
Brown will also saddle the two-for-two GII Louisiana Derby winner and 'Rising Star' Emerging Market (USA) (Candy Ride {Arg}) in Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby.
Pedigree notes: The Three Chimneys Farm-bred Always A Runner, a US$1.05 million ($1.46 million) Keeneland September yearling, becomes the 14th Grade I winner for the Three Chimneys leading sire Gun Runner (USA). Gun Runner will also be well-represented by 'Rising Star' Further Ado (USA) in the Kentucky Derby. She shares her third dam, multiple stakes winner Miss Seffens (USA) (Dehere {USA}), with G1 Golden Slipper Stakes winner Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon).
Always A Runner is bred on the same Gun Runner x Malibu Moon (USA) cross as the Brown-trained GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner and narrow GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Sierra Leone (USA) and multiple Grade I winner Locked (USA).
Always A Runner was produced by Three Chimneys homebred and 'Rising Star' Always Carina (USA) (Malibu Moon {USA}), a half-sister to GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Structor (USA) (Palace Malice {USA}).
Always Carina romped in by 13 and three quarter lengths in her first two career starts, then was a career-high second in the GII Mother Goose Stakes. She is also responsible for a Gun Runner 2-year-old filly (passed in for US$850,000 ($1.18 million) as a Keeneland September yearling) and a Gun Runner yearling colt.
Shred The Gnar becomes Into Mischief's newest Grade I in La Troienne
Leading stallion Into Mischief (USA) picked up his newest Grade I winner Friday, bringing his total to 31, when 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' Shred The Gnar (USA) took down the GI Fasig-Tipton La Troienne Stakes on the Kentucky Oaks undercard ahead of Fully Subscribed (USA) (Tiz the Law {USA}).
Unraced since a sixth after a rough trip in the GIII Royal Delta Stakes on February 14, a race which is really her only blemish in an otherwise beautiful career, Shred The Gnar is already a graded stakes winner having captured the GIII Chilukki Stakes over his track at a mile late last year.
Friday's 3-1 shot had plenty of early pace, breaking with enough speed to shadow frontrunner Miss Justify (USA) (Justify {USA}) and sitting just off that rival's flank through moderate fractions of 24.01s and 48.54s.
Poised between horses with 5-2 race favourite Fully Subscribed positioned just to her outside, Shred The Gnar split that pair at the quarter pole and got first jump, then had to hold off that favourite ahead of a closing Bless The Broken (USA) (Laoban {USA}) to earn the win under Luis Saez.
“It's a really good way to celebrate a birthday with a Grade I,” said winning trainer Brian Lynch, who trains the filly for the Flying Dutchmen. “She didn't handle things well at Gulfstream Park but once we got her back here to Churchill she returned to the filly we knew she always was. She really touted herself coming into this race that she'd run a big race.”
"It's a really good way to celebrate a birthday with a Grade I." - Brian Lynch
“She broke pretty well today and got herself in a good position,” added Saez. “She has been training to be behind horses. She was able to respond very well today in that situation. I'm so proud of the way she ran today.”
Brian Lynch | Image courtesy of Keeneland
Pedigree notes: Into Mischief continues his stellar run atop the stallion standings and picks up his fourth Grade I winner of 2026 here with Shred The Gnar joining Renegade (USA), Commandment (USA), and Eclatant (USA). She is bred on the same cross as last year's Horse of the Year Sovereignty (USA).
A US$610,000 ($847,000) Fasig-Tipton Saratoga grad, Shred The Gnar is a full sister to multiple Grade winner and Grade I-performed Owendale (USA) who banked more than US$1.5 million ($2.1 million) on the track.
First dam Aspen Light (USA), picked up by Eaton Sales for US$360,000 ($500,000) at the 2020 Keeneland November Sale, is a Bernardini (USA) half-sister to Grade I winner Great Hunter (USA) (Aptitude {USA}) and to the dam of both Graded winner Promise Keeper (USA) (Constitution {USA}) and stakes winner Wicked Awesome (USA) (Awesome Again {USA}). This is also the family of Eclipse-winning 3-year-old filly Stellar Wind (USA) (Curlin {USA}).
Aspen Light has nine winners from 10 to the track and still has a 2-year-old Uncle Mo (USA) filly, who sold to Mike Repole for US$650,000 ($902,500) through the same Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale last year, and a yearling Practical Joke (USA) filly, who was a US$425,000 ($590,000) Keeneland November weanling to Wesley Ward, to represent her.
