Track Phantom made his stakes debut a winning one in Saturday’s $98,000 Gun Runner at Fair Grounds, determinedly proving best by 1 1/4 lengths in the Road to the Kentucky Derby series qualifier. Cristian Torres was up on the frontrunning colt for Steve Asmussen and owners L & N Racing, Clark Brewster, Jerry Caroom, and Breeze Easy.
By Quality Road, Track Phantom broke alertly from his outside post and pressed Next Level through opening fractions in :23.61 and :46.93 before surging to a short lead midway on the far turn, and he accelerated into the stretch on a clear advantage.
Nash, favored at 1-2 following a 10-length maiden win at Churchill Downs, made a run at Track Phantom nearing the completion of the far turn and was joined by the rallying Snead at the top of the stretch, but the challengers never made serious headway on the leader.
Track Phantom held safe as the 4.90-1 third choice among seven two-year-olds, stopping the teletimer in 1:44.42.
“It’s impressive that both of his two turn races have been victories, and it was a good field today,” Asmussen said. “I actually thought they went too fast in the middle, you know, 46 4/5 here in a two-turn race, you don’t see horses see it out very often. He’s obviously a very good horse who has some room to physically develop and we have him right where want to be at this stage of his career.”
Asmussen, who trained the race’s namesake, 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner, has now captured two of three runnings of the 1 1/16-mile race, winning the inaugural edition with Epicenter in 2021.
“Gun Runner was such a special horse for us,” Asmussen said. “He got started during his two-year-old, three-year-old season here, which put him on the map, and the things he went on to do were obviously very special.”
Track Phantom was exiting a 4 3/4-length romp over maiden special weight rivals in his third start, and first two-turn attempt, at Churchill Downs in late November. The bay juvenile joined the Kentucky Derby picture Saturday and increased his career earnings to $165,000 from a 4-2-1-1 record.
“He broke sharp for us like we expected,” said Torres, who was in to ride from Oaklawn Park and earned his first win at Fair Grounds. “Going into the first turn I was trying to let the one horse (Next Level) go and save (my horse). On the backside, he kind of relaxed a little bit, but I knew we were going a little bit fast. The way he was traveling, he felt comfortable and he was well in hand. I just waited until we turned for home to really ask him and when he did, he just took off.”
Out of the Grade 2-winning Into Mischief mare Miss Sunset, Track Phantom was bred in Kentucky by Breeze Easy and sold for $500,000 as a yearling at the 2022 Keeneland September sale.
Snead, off at 9.10-1 in his first stakes attempt, wound up nearly two lengths better than Nash in third. It was another five lengths to Footprint in fourth, and Risk It, Neat, and Next Level followed.
The Gun Runner awarded points on a 10-5-3-2-1 scale toward a berth in the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby (G1) next spring.
