Harking back to Bold Ruler and Princequillo, Gun Runner and Tapit click
Gun Runner and Tapit is the latest “it” thing in pedigrees
By Frances J. Karon
Nicks or sire-line crosses are unavoidable concepts in the discussion of pedigrees; our “Ghostzapper hits century mark” post yesterday, for example, noted that Stronghold is bred on the highly successful Ghostzapper/Distorted Humor cross.
The development of nicks, good and bad, tends to be organic. One very well known nick that’s stamped in lore is Nasrullah/Bold Ruler over Princequillo. All three stallions stood at Claiborne Farm, so it started out as a matter of convenience. Let’s look specifically at Bold Ruler, a foal of 1954, and Princequillo, a foal of 1940. Claiborne’s principals and longtime clients like the Wheatley Stable that owned Bold Ruler had Princequillo mares to breed. Bold Ruler’s first crop featured Wheatley’s stakes winner Bold Consort from Princequillo’s dual champion daughter Misty Morn (who would go on to become Broodmare of the Year in 1963), and Misty Morn’s next two foals were Bold Consort’s champion full brothers Bold Lad (USA)—not to be confused with Bold Ruler’s English and Irish champion Bold Lad (IRE), whose dam was by Democratic—and Successor.
That success right out of the gate meant that all the farm’s best Princequillo mares would continue to go to Bold Ruler, who sired two-time Horse of the Year and Triple Crown winner Secretariat from a Princequillo mare in his 11th crop of foals. In all, twelve individual daughters of Princequillo produced 39 foals by Bold Ruler, and nine of these foals were black-type winners (23% stakes winners to foals).
What follows is the trickle-down effect, wherein the cross is duplicated for generations down from the original pairing—in this case, Bold Ruler and Princequillo mares. Horse of the Year and Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew is one such example. He’s by Bold Reasoning (by Boldnesian, by Bold Ruler) from a mare by Poker (by Round Table, by Princequillo). So the early hits on the cross that first produced a foal in 1960 created a potent nick that was tried for years (yielding Secretariat more than a decade into the cross) and for generations (yielding Seattle Slew two generations removed from the original nick pattern). Sixty-five years later, breeders in N. America continue to reap the rewards generated from that nick, primarily nowadays in the form of A.P. Indy (by Seattle Slew and out of a Secretariat mare, so we have the Bold Ruler/Princequillo to thank twofold).
What I’ve written above is a long tangent to explain how nicks can start out by trial and error and, once proven effective, then develop by design. We’re now leaving the “by chance” development phase and entering the “by design” stage of an excellent nick—Gun Runner with Tapit mares—that was strongly used initially due in no small part to Winchell Thoroughbreds’s involvement with both of the stallions, and the weekend provided a timely opportunity to write about it here.
GUN RUNNER (2013 Candy Ride – Quiet Giant, by Giant’s Causeway)
B: Besilu Stables LLC
O: Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm
T: Steve Asmussen
Record: 19-12-3-2, $15,988,600
Highest achievement: U.S. Horse of the Year and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner
When the three-year-old filly Recharge won the Sunland Park Oaks (with Candy Aisle finishing second for a Gun Runner exacta) on Sunday to remain undefeated in three starts, she became the 28th stakes winner sired by Gun Runner. Her dam Remit is a minor stakes-winning full sister to Grade 2 winner Tapiture, Grade 3 winner Rotation, and stakes winner Retap from an otherwise light back family. Remit has already produced Grade 2 winner Finite (Munnings) and stakes winner Reride (Candy Ride, the sire of Gun Runner).
But what we’re most interested in for the purpose of this post is that Recharge is the seventh Gun Runner stakes winner produced from a daughter of Tapit. That direct cross has created 16% stakes winners to foals—and this includes a number of current two-year-olds, so at this time of year, the percentage is on the low side—and 25% of Gun Runner’s total stakes winners. Put another way, one out of every four stakes winners by Gun Runner is out of a Tapit mare, from just three full crops of racing age (not counting the current two-year-olds).
RECHARGE (2021 Gun Runner – Remit, by Tapit)
B: Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC
O: Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC
T: Steve Asmussen
Record: 3-3-0-0, $189,498
Highest achievement: Stakes winner
What’s more, five of the seven Gun Runner/Tapit stakes winners are Graded winners, and all five are out of different mares. These are Society-G1 (out of Etiquette); Wicked Halo-G2 (Just Wicked); Disarm-G3 (Easy Tap); Il Miracolo-G3 (Tapit’s World); and Red Route One-G3 (Red House). (Side note: Six of them—all but Il Miracolo—were trained by Steve Asmussen.)
That we’re seeing these results from this many individual mares is a phenomenal endorsement of the quality of the nick, and it’s a cross that was readily available due to Winchell Thoroughbreds having an abundance of good Tapit mares at their disposal. Winchell is the breeder of five of the seven Gun Runner/Tapit stakes winners, and three of the Graded ones. What we’ll see next on the heels of this revelation is sons of Gun Runner being bred to mares by Tapit and sons of Tapit to play off the initial success of the cross.
There was no proven endorsement of the Candy Ride-line nick with Tapit in place when Gun Runner covered his first Tapit mare, although it was a natural progression from the good Candy Ride/A.P. Indy nick (which however in terms of Graded stakes quality is not otherwise as good through the Pulpit branch). Wicked Halo, winner of the G2 Adirondack at Saratoga in 2021, was the first Candy Ride-line Graded winner from a Tapit mare. Since then, excluding the Gun Runner progeny, we’ve seen Grade 2 winner Gear Jockey (Twirling Candy) and Grade 3 winner Hit Show (Candy Ride) on the cross.
Of course, the broader A.P. Indy cross is also working with Gun Runner, as Saturday’s G2 Risen Star winner Sierra Leone, last year’s Grade 1-winning two-year-old colt Locked, and Grade 3 winners Runninsonofagun and Shotgun Hottie are out of Malibu Moon mares, and that stallion is by A.P. Indy. Taiba (dam by Flatter), a Grade 1 winner, and Grade 2 winner Life Talk (Bernardini) are out of mares by sons of A.P. Indy. So while five of Gun Runner’s 20 Graded winners are out of Tapit mares, 11 are out of A.P. Indy-line mares. This doesn’t count stakes winners like Grade 1 winner Gunite (second dam by Pulpit), where A.P. Indy comes into play in another position of the pedigree.
Gun Runner, with an assist by Tapit and A.P. Indy, is not doing much wrong these days, as his $250,000 live foal fee from his Three Chimneys base attests. For his part, Tapit, who is 23 this year, is still active, standing for $185,000 at Gainesway.
While we’re on the topic of Gun Runner and Winchell Thoroughbreds, Verne Winchell also bred and raced Grade 1 winner Olympio (Naskra), who doesn’t appear in many current stakes winners outside of progeny of Tapiture (who is out of an Olympio mare); note that Olympio appears in three of Gun Runner’s stakes winners, including the aforementioned Grade 1 winner Gunite and Recharge, while the third dam of Grade 3 winner Red Route Run is a half-sister to Olympio. That’s the kind of information that could benefit someone looking to breed a mare who has a strain of Olympio in her pedigree (such as through Tapiture) somewhere down the line. That is, if you believe that history, be it in the form of a straight sireline/broodmare sireline nick or something deeper in the pedigree, has anything to contribute to the future.
Nicks sometimes get a bad ‘snake oil’ rap from the misinformed, but in our experience, any breeder who denigrates them publicly often applies them privately. Here’s our take on approaching nicks: they are just one important tool at your disposal in planning a mating, but hitting a good cross can be beneficial.
as you mentioned Malibu Moon mares are doing a great job with Gun Runner - 4 graded SW from only 8 runners....
Malibu Moon likes Storm Cat anyway he can get to him.