MATING SUGGESTIONS: The exceptional early achievements of Horse of the Year Gun Runner suggests strongly that he is going to be as great a Champion at stud as he was on the track. One of his major contributors has been the tough and fast Gunite, who figures among Gun Runner’s magnificent total of six first-crop G1SWs. Gun Runner’s subsequent crops have maintained the flow of Gr.1 winners, with Brant’s and Super Corredora’s wins in the 2025 Del Mar Futurity and Breeders’Cup Juvenile Fillies making them the 11th and 12th G1SWs from Gun Runner’s first five crops. The next step for Gun Runner is to prove himself as a sire of sires and the outlook is promising, with Early Voting’s first yearlings selling for up to $700,000 and Cyberknife’s for up to $550,000, In a demanding campaign which saw Gunite achieve the impressive career figures of 20-9-7-2, the resilient Gunite crucially established himself as Gun Runner’s fastest son. Precocious enough at two years to win the G1 Hopeful Stakes over 7f at Saratoga by nearly six lengths, Gunite maintained his form so well that he was a four-time stakes winner at around 7f at three. In a tough international campaign at four he led virtually all the way in the G1 Forego Stakes over 7f, to end the long winning sequence of Champion Sprinter Elite Power and rounded off his career with a good second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. In becoming a three-time GSW at Saratoga, Gunite was following a family tradition, as his dam Simple Surprise and 2nd dam Simplify were both SWs at Saratoga. Simple Surprise’s second Gun Runner colt is Spice Runner, a G3SW at two in 2025. Gunite’s soundness can be attributed to his excellent conformation and bloodlines. Gun Runner retired sound after 19 races, many of them at the highest level. Also, Gunite is inbred 3x3 to Giant’s Causeway, who as a racehorse earned the nickname “The Iron Horse” and as a stallion topped the Blood-Horse’s general sires’ table in 2009, 2010 and 2012. Gunite can be expected to work well with the bloodlines which have brought Gun Runner so much success. As Gunite’s two lines of STORM CAT will be back in the fifth generation of his foals’ pedigrees, a further line is possible, especially when his male line has worked so well with STORM CAT . Gunite’s grandsire Candy Ride owes eight of his 115 SWs to daughters of STORM CAT, including champion 2YO Shared Belief. Gun Runner in turn also owes a lot of his success to mares with STORM CAT blood. Echo Zulu and Vahva are inbred 4x4, while Gun Pilot and Early Voting are 4x3. SCAT DADDY , another member of the STORM CAT male line, sired the dam of Gun Runner’s G2SW Pappacap and the 2nd dam of G1 2YO winner Brant. HARLAN’S HOLIDAY sired the dam of G1SW Vhava. These two branches of the STORM CAT line should suit Gunite, as should daughters of INTO MISCHIEF and JUSTIFY. PULPIT will be back in the fourth generation of Gunite’s progeny, so again a second line is well worth considering. From his first 45 starters out of TAPIT mares, Gun Runner has sired G1SW Society, G2SWs Red Route One and Wicked Halo, G3SWs Disarm, Recharge and Il Miracolo, as well as three SWs and the Gr.1-placed Dreamlike. The nine BTWs represent 14% of Gun Runner’s foals out of Tapit mares. Tapit mares create 4x3 inbreeding to Pulpit with Gunite. Mares by JUSTIFY create 4x5 to Pulpit. PULPIT is by no means the only representative of the A.P. INDY/MR PROSPECTOR cross who is working well with Gun Runner. Gun Runner’s first starter out of a mare by FLATTER was the multiple G1-winning Taiba while his first 12 starters out of mares by MALIBU MOON include three-time G1SW Sierra Leone and two-time G1SW Locked, as well as G3SWs Runninsonofagun and Shotgun Hottie. MINESHAFT, another whose grandsires are Seattle Slew and Mr Prospector, is the broodmare sire of the G1-placed Bendoog. BERNARDINI has also started very well with Gun Runner. His daughters’ first eight starters include G2SW Life Talk and a pair of SWs. Gun Runner also has a stakes winner and a G2-placed winner with dams by A.P. INDY. UNBRIDLED line mares are also making their mark with Gun Runner. G1SW Brant has a dam by Unbridled’s Song’s son LIAM’S MAP, while G3SW Running Away has a dam by UNBRIDLED’S SONG and G1-placed Dry Powder has a dam by BROKEN VOW . There are also GSHs out of mares by EMPIRE MAKER (2) and BODEMEISTER . Mares from the DISTORTED HUMOR line should suit Gunite, as Gun Runner has sired the G2SW Intricate from one of his daughters, as well as the G1-winning Cyberknife and G2-placed McLaren Vale from grand-daughters. Other branches of the MR PROSPECTOR line are also having success with Gun Runner. G1SW Gun Pilot has a dam by SMART STRIKE , while G2SW Gun Song has a dam by MR GREELEY . Gun Runner is having success with INDIAN CHARLIE line mares. His G2SW Chatalas is out of one of his daughters, while SW Concept is out of a grand-daughter. Mares by UNCLE MO could therefore reinforce Gunite’s speed. 35
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