Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
PEGASUS Gun Runner works like a pro
NEW ORLEANS – Just watch Gun Runner get a bath.
Most horses stomp, shift about, shake their heads, offer at least some mild form of protest as they are being bathed outside barns after morning exercise.
Gun Runner, getting the business on a chilly Sunday morning at Fair Grounds, barely budged. The chain on the end of the shank by which he is led around goes over his nose but not through his mouth. There is never a question of Gun Runner acting stupid: He is all class.
“An amazing horse to be around,” is what trainer Steve Asmussen said Sunday, the days dwindling before a trip to Gulfstream Park, a start in the Pegasus World Cup, then retirement to become a Kentucky stallion.
Gun Runner, the presumed 2017 Horse of the Year after winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic in his most recent start, was just as professional out on the Fair Grounds racetrack Sunday morning as he was on the backstretch, continuing preparations for the Jan. 27 Pegasus World Cup by working six furlongs in 1:13.20 a little before 6:30.
Breezing in company with Gettysburg, the day’s first light flickering above Gentilly Boulevard, Gun Runner was timed in splits of 12.20 seconds, 24.40, 36.40, and 49.20 on the way to his official six-furlong clocking. He then galloped out seven furlongs in 1:25.80 and one mile in 1:39.80.
Gun Runner broke off one length behind Gettysburg, stayed behind him down the backstretch, ranged up alongside around the far turn, and quickly pulled away from the furlong marker to the finish, crossing the line about three lengths in front before leaving his workmate far, far behind during a very strong gallop-out around the clubhouse turn.
“He just does things so easily,” said jockey Florent Geroux, who worked Gun Runner on Sunday. “He always breezes like a freight train. He’s always been a good-working horse, but now he takes it so easy, comes back from the breeze and barely blows. If you want to go fast, he goes fast – we know how fast he can go.”
Asmussen said he wanted an easier work for Gun Runner after a demanding breeze with Gettysburg a week ago.
“He had a pretty intense work last week,” Asmussen said. “They went heads up – broke off together and were hooked up the whole way. It was time to step up the intensity, and I thought he showed it in his gallops this week. He was more focused, like, ‘Let’s get serious, no playing around, the holidays are over.’ His gallops were very strong all week. We backed off on him today. I had Florent break him off behind the other horse and get him to relax. He said he handled it wonderfully, that he wasn’t pulling on him. Past the wire, he was impressive. He was cooling out really nice and loose today.”
Gun Runner will work once more at Fair Grounds, either next Sunday or Monday, depending on the weather, and then ship to Florida on Jan. 18. He’ll have a few gallops at Gulfstream, then one easy work there just to get a feel for the surface. As adaptable and generous as he is talented, Gun Runner is very likely to at least tolerate it.
Seeking the Soul goes easily
Working Sunday morning about 10 minutes after Gun Runner was a second Pegasus bound Fair Grounds-based horse, Seeking the Soul, who went five furlongs in 1:03.
“It was just a maintenance work today,” trainer Dallas Stewart said. “He worked in a minute last week, so we went a little bit softer today.”
The Pegasus will be Seeking the Soul’s first start since he won the Grade 1 Clark on Nov. 24, the first stakes win for the 5-year-old Charles Fipke homebred. Stewart said Seeking the Soul, who nearly always works by himself because he gets too aggressive with company, will do all his major work for the Pegasus at Fair Grounds.
“We got two more to go,” he said. “He’s healthy and looking great. He works good here, and training here, it’s worked so far.”
Stewart also said Fipke has not decided on a course of action for Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Forever Unbridled, who has not worked since Dec. 11. She has been withdrawn from Pegasus consideration but is going through daily gallops.