A yearling colt by Gun Runner sold for $1.55 million to M.V. Magnier and Peter Brant's White Birch Farm to lead the Sept. 11 fourth session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, through 4 p.m. ET. Magnier represents interests from Coolmore.
The bay colt, bred by Three Chimneys Farm and consigned as Hip 969 by Four Star Sales, is the second foal out of the graded stakes-winning Into Mischief mare Twenty Carat. Her first foal, a 2-year-old full sister to Hip 969, is training in Southern California and recorded a bullet half-mile breeze at Los Alamitos Race Course late last month.
"I mean, what can't you say about Gun Runner?" Four Star Sales' Kerry Cauthen said. "You can't go wrong right now with Gun Runner. They're in love with him and they should be.
"(Hip 969), he just walked great. He was a big, tall, strapping horse that looks like he's got all the world and a future ahead of him."
Magnier and Brant have plenty of experience with Gun Runner colts, as they purchased 2024 champion 3-year-old male and recent Whitney Stakes (G1) winner Sierra Leone, who they campaign with other partners. The multiple grade 1-winning son of Gun Runner has won $7 million from 13 career starts, never finishing off the board.
This is their second Gun Runner yearling purchased at the sale, including the current sale topper—Hip 177, who sold during Book 1 for $3.3 million to Magnier, White Birch Farm, and Winchell Thoroughbreds. As of Thursday afternoon, Hip 969 became Gun Runner's 12th seven-figure purchase during the September sale, with a total of 35 sold averaging a robust $948,143.
Cauthen said the colt really developed a lot over the last few months, from the first time he saw him in April.
"He probably wasn't furnished yet, and that's the magic of the Kentucky bluegrass. Thanks to Goncalo (Borges Torrealba) and thanks to all the guys at Three Chimneys. They have done a fabulous job with all of their horses.
"Take Tony Cissell (general manager and chief operating officer of Three Chimneys Farm) running the farm, and he's got a great crew there. It's really all of them, it doesn't really have a whole lot to do with us. We just get to be the lucky people who bring him the last mile."
Gun Runner, currently the third-leading stallion in North America, stood this past breeding season at Three Chimneys Farm near Midway, Ky., for an advertised fee of $250,000.
