Bloodstock agent Lauren Carlisle purchased one of the fourth-session leaders during the ongoing Keeneland September Yearling Sale, acquiring Hip 790, a Gun Runner colt, for $1.6 million during the first hour of the sale Sept. 17.
She did not disclose the client for whom she bought the dark bay or brown colt, but indicated he would be sent to Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse.
"I loved him. Beautiful colt, looks very two-turn," she said. "Gun Runner speaks for himself. We had swung pretty big the last few days, and had not gotten it done, so I'm a little relieved that we got one that we really wanted. We're trying to collect colts."
She called the colt "a very imposing individual and a very nice horse."
She said Hip 790 had the allure of being one of the limited number of Gun Runner colts left in the sale. Because of his commercial appeal, many Gun Runners sell in Book 1 or Book 2, where Keeneland stacks its anticipated hot prospects.
"You've got to step up to the plate and swing, so that's what we're trying to do," Carlisle said.
"Hopefully two turns, dirt, that would be great, that would be ideal," Carlisle added on her hopes for the colt. "But he's going to run wherever Mark sees fit, and hopefully that's in classic-distance races. But there wasn't much negative to say about him."
Hip 790, bred by Three Chimneys Farm and consigned by Four Star Sales, is out of the dual stakes-winning Into Mischief mare She's My Gem, who has one multiple winner from three foals of racing age. That horse, Thirty Two Chunk (More Than Ready), is 2-4-0 in 11 starts with earnings of $85,040. Her current 3-year-old, a full sister to Hip 790 named Island Flower, is unplaced in three starts. Her current 2-year-old, Detonator (by Gun Runner son Cyberknife ), is unraced. Island Flower and Detonator each brought $550,000 as yearlings at the Keeneland September sale.
Gun Runner, the third-leading sire in North America this year by progeny earnings, stood the 2026 season for an advertised fee of $250,000 at Three Chimneys Farm near Versailles, Ky.
Three Chimneys Farm bought She's My Gem for $325,000 from the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in 2021. This sale followed a racing career in which she competed for owner Dale F. Taylor Racing and trainer Todd Fincher, winning the 2019 Zia Park Distaff Stakes and the 2021 Orleans Stakes at Delta Downs Racetrack during a 10-race campaign in which she earned $175,360.
