Fair Grounds: Asmussen’s Track Phantom upsets in Gun Runner

Track Phantom spurted away from heavily favored Nash at the top of the stretch in Saturday's $100,000 Gun Runner Stakes at Fair Grounds, giving trainer Steve Asmussen his second victory in the race named for one of his most accomplished runners.

A Road to the Kentucky Derby race, the Gun Runner awarded points toward a spot in the starting gate in Louisville on the first Saturday in May to the top five finishers in the listed stakes on a 10-5-3-2-1 basis.

Under jockey Cristian Torres, Track Phantom gunned to the front from his outside post in the field of seven following the scratch of Catching Freedom and was quickly challenged by long shot Next Level through opening fractions of 23.61 and 46.93 seconds and 1:12.04 in the 1 1/16-mile race for 2-year-olds.

In town to ride just one race, Torres collected his first career Fair Grounds win from just three local mounts. 

"He broke sharp for us like we expected,” Torres said. “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.”

At the wire, it was Track Phantom by 1 1/4 lengths over Snead, who finished 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Nash, followed by Footprint and Risk It. Running time for the race was 1:44.42.

Track Phantom returned $11.80, $5.80, $2.60. Snead paid $8.20, $3.00. Nash returned $2.10 to show.  

Asmussen expressed satisfaction with his colt's progress.

“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.”

Brendan Walsh, trainer of Snead, was likewise pleased with his colt's performance, particularly that he was gaining on the winner at the end of the race.

“That was a huge one,” Walsh said. “I’m delighted. You'd like to think he’d improve more because he’s that type of horse and that the further he goes the better he’ll get. He ran at that horse again right at the end. I don't think the pennies dropped with this horse still. He’s so laid back. When things really click with him, who knows (what he could do) if he keeps going the right way.”

Cox, meantime, said he saw no immediate excuse for Nash's lackluster effort.

“I thought he got a good trip,” Cox said. “Sat behind what we thought was a hot pace. Horse on the lead kept going. No excuses that I can see. He was getting passed by a horse on the outside. I don't know. We’ll see how he comes out of it. Disappointing. We’ll see if we can bounce back. I thought he’d show a little more today.”

It was the second-straight victory for Track Phantom, who broke his maiden at Churchill Downs on Nov. 25. The colt has compiled $165,000 in earnings from four starts for owners L and N Racing, Clark O. Brewster, Jerry Caroom and Breeze Easy, who also bred the son of Quality Road.

Named for one of the all-time greats, the initial Gun Runner was won by the Asmussen-trained Epicenter two years ago. That colt would later take down both the Risen Star (G2) and Louisiana Derby (G2) in advance of a runner-up performance in the Kentucky Derby.   

“Gun Runner was such a special horse for us,” Asmussen said. “He got started during his 2-year-old, 3-year-old season here, which put him on the map, and the things he went on to do were obviously very special.”