HE has rarely been out of the news throughout his career, but it not every day that a champion racehorse makes such a sensational impact at stud with their first runners, especially when they themselves earned just $67,000 from two wins in three starts as a juvenile, those wins coming over a mile and an extended mile.

A contemporary of Arrogate, now off the mark finally with his first couple of winners, Gun Runner was third to that horse in the Travers Stakes, a position he also occupied behind Nyquist in the Kentucky Derby. In that sophomore year Gun Runner won the $1 million Louisiana Derby and gained his most notable win in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap over nine furlongs.

Beaten by his nemesis Arrogate in the Group 1 Dubai World Cup at four, Gun Runner was unbeaten in his five US starts that year. Four of these were in Grade 1s, ranging from eight and a half furlongs to a mile and a quarter. The crowning glory was his win in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. After that he was kept in training to contest the world’s most valuable race, and he added the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup.

Twelve wins in 19 starts brought winnings just shy of $16 million and he retired to stud at Three Chimneys Farm. His foals in 2019 lit up the sale rings, averaging $345,000, while his yearlings were no less in demand last year. Even so, his explosive start at stud has been breath-taking.

As I write, his first crop of racing age has produced 27 runners, 10 of which have won. Compare that number of starters with the leading quartet of first-crop sires standing presently in Europe. Ardad has 44 runners, Cotai Glory 63, Galileo Gold a more modest 38 and Profitable has more than 70 starters already. Caravaggio moved to the USA but his first crop in Europe has seen 56 runners.

Group/Grade 1 wins.

Ardad and Galileo Gold, with Perfect Power and Ebro River, are the first-crop sires over here with Group 1 winners, a great achievement with your first runners. Half of Gun Runner’s 10 winners are stakes horses, four are stakes winners, and two are Grade 1 winners. Last weekend saw this latter happening, pushing the stallion to the head of affairs on a global scale.

Within 24 hours, as the Saratoga meeting drew to a close, Echo Zulu won the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes over seven furlongs, while over the same trip Gunite landed the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes. Both were winning for the second time. While Echo Zulu is unbeaten, Gunite was going to post for the fifth time and was runner-up in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special Stakes.

Gunite is the first foal of a Saratoga stakes-winning daughter of Cowboy Cal (Giant’s Causeway), and his first three dams are stakes winners, none of any great note.

On the other hand, Echo Zulu, a $300,000 yearling, is the second Grade 1 winner at Saratoga for his Grade 2 winning dam, Letgomyecho (Menifee). His half-brother Echo Town (Speightstown) won his at three and they are among nine winning offspring from their dam.