Gun Runner set the highest of standards Thursday at the OBS Spring 2-year-olds in Training sale when hip No. 782 sold for a whopping $2.2 million to Donato Lanni, who was bidding on behalf of Amr Zedan.
“That was ‘wow’,” said Lanni. “Amr Zedan absolutely loved him and he really wanted the horse. He was not going to go home without that horse…Bob (Baffert) really loved him too. The whole team did.”
The strapping bay colt is out of the stakes winner Perfect Wife, whose lone foal to race is the graded stakes-placed filly Runaway Wife. The Kentucky-bred was consigned by de Meric Sales, agent and was bred by Fern Circle Stables.
“He performed very well and had a great gallop out. He was really fast for a such a large-sized horse. He looks like he wants to go a Classic distance and has gears,” said Lanni. “It’s nice to see a horse with that much size by Gun Runner who looks like a two-turn horse but also has the speed. He showed it here.”
“We started out just trying to find some nice Gun Runners because we believed in him and he had a nice run with his first crop. It was amazing what he did with his first crop,” said Tristan de Meric.
Last year’s champion Second-Crop sire, Gun Runner currently tops the 2023 Third-Crop list and is in the top five among all sires with nearly $5 million in progeny earnings. Among his stakes winners this year are Red Route One, Gunite and Wicked Halo.
