Arlington Million: West looks to stay hot with Runaway Storm

Trainer Ethan West won the second graded stakes of his career Sunday when Chunk of Gold wired the field in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby, and the young trainer will look to stay hot this Saturday at Colonial Downs with Runaway Storm in the Arlington Million (G1).

 

Before Sunday’s West Virginia Derby, Chunk of Gold earned a spot and ran ninth in the Kentucky. With 36 starters since that first Saturday in May, West has won with 11. Along with Chunk of Gold’s West Virginia title, West went 3-for-3 last week, and his other two wins came locally. It’s been a big year for the 32-year-old trainer who already has surpassed $1 million in earnings for the first time in his eight-year career.

 

 

Tabbed at 20-1 on the morning line, Runaway Storm will face his toughest field to date, including last year’s runner-up in the Million, Integration; Mystik Dan, who’s résumé includes a win in the 2024 Kentucky Derby and $4,467,120 lifetime earnings; and the globetrotting European import Cairo, who finished third last out in the Queen Anne Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot.

 

West has had the Arlington Million circled for Runaway Storm for more than a year.

 

“We were actually targeting the Million last year,” West said. “We could only get one start into him before the Million, but we were OK with it because he ran really good off an eight-month layoff to just get beat a nose by Money Supply. But (after that race) he had a little bit of a setback. By the time he was going to get back up and going, it would have been the dead of winter. So we figured we'd just give him time off until the first of the year, then get him back up as a 5-year-old and campaign him towards the Million.”

 

In his first of two races so far this year, both on the turf at Horseshoe Indianapolis, Runaway Storm ran a troubled sixth. Most recently in the Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial Stakes, he led throughout but was run down by Encino, earning a consecutive second-place finish in that event. 

 

“If you watch the last race at Indiana, he never stopped but just got beat by a good horse,” West said. “In the gallop out, his jockey couldn't get him stopped until the half-mile pole going down the backside.”

 

In the 2023 Virginia Derby (G3), Runaway Storm ran valiantly in defeat to Integration, setting extremely fast fractions but never throwing in the towel to finish third.

 

“He's one of those horses that lays it down every time you lead him over,” West said.

 

After the Virginia Derby, Runaway Storm went to Keeneland for the Bryan Station (G3) and earned his young trainer’s first graded-stakes title. The gelded son of Midnight Storm was known for doing his best running on the lead, but he came from off the pace in the Bryan Station and tenaciously fought off Talk of the Nation in a thrilling photo finish.

 

“He just walked out of the gate that day and took a completely different approach to his running style,” West said. “I wish he would relax and have that running style more often. But he's just a very heavy horse, a very strong horse. And he's a very tough horse to break. We've never sent him and asked him to go to the lead. He just does it on his own. So he's always kind of just been a front runner and even though he doesn't explode down the lane, he doesn't stop running.”

 

Runaway Storm broke his maiden going nine furlongs and proved himself again at that distance with his third in the Virginia Derby, but at 1 1/4 miles over the turf, the Arlington Million will be his longest distance test to date.

 

“If we can get him to relax a little bit and harness that early speed, I think we'll be fine,” West said. ?

 

The way West’s barn is going, Runaway Storm has the profile of a long-shot contender whom horseplayers and fans should keep a close eye on in Saturday’s Million.