The Gun Runner Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana is a Thoroughbred horse race inaugurated on December 26, 2021, by track owner Churchill Downs Incorporated as the first race of their ongoing permanent series known as the Road to the Kentucky Derby.[1]
The event is named in honor of Gun Runner, the 2017 American Horse of the Year and a 2024 U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC and Three Chimneys Farm.[2] This race is contested annually in December at a distance of a mile and one-sixteenth on dirt and is open to two-year-old horses of either sex. It awards the first four finishers diminishing points with a minimum of one point to all participants which are used towards entry into the following year's Kentucky Derby run on the first Saturday in May.
The Gun Runner Stakes is currently followed in the series by the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes which is held at the same New Orleans racetrack in mid-January.
Points awarded the participants towards a starting place in the Kentucky Derby
- 1st: 10
- 2nd: 5
- 3rd: 3
- 4th: 2
- all others: 1
Winners
| Year |
Winner |
Age |
Jockey |
Trainer |
Owner |
Dist. (Miles) |
Time |
Win$ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Built | 2 | Jareth Loveberry | Wayne M. Catalano | Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners (Aaron Wellman) | 1-1/16 m | 1:43.53 | $60,000 |
| 2023 | Track Phantom | 2 | Christian Torres | Steve Asmussen | L and N Racing LLC, Clark O. Brewster, Jerry Caroom, Breeze Easy LLC | 1-1/16 m | 1:44.42 | $60,000 |
| 2022 | Jace's Road | 2 | Florent Geroux | Brad H. Cox | West Point Thoroughbreds/Albaugh Family Stables LLC | 1-1/16 m | 1:44.85 | $60,000 |
| 2021 | Epicenter | 2 | Brian Hernandez Jr. | Steven M. Asmussen | Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC | 1-1/16 m | 1:44.19 | $60,000 |
References
- ^ "Study Guide: 2024 Gun Runner Stakes". kentuckyderby.com. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
- ^ "A Breed Apart". Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
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