Gun Runner's full brother entered for debut at Fair Grounds
Three Chimneys Farms' Fortune Ticket, a full brother to champion Gun Runner, is entered to make his debut in a $45,000 maiden special weight race at Fair Grounds next Friday.
Set to face 11 other 3-year-olds going six furlongs on the main track, the Steve Asmussen trainee shares some connections with the 2017 Horse of the Year.
Three Chimneys campaigned Gun Runner with Winchell Thoroughbreds, and Asmussen saddled the six-time Grade 1 winner to victories in the 2017 Breeders' Cup Classic and 2018 Pegasus World Cup.
As a full sibling to the champion, Fortune Ticket is a Candy Ride colt out of the dam Quiet Giant.
Going in the second of nine races on the day in New Orleans, the 3-year-old Fortune Ticket, who will have jockey James Graham up, drew post 6. He's one of six starters making his debut in this spot, and four others have but one career start to their name.
“He’s definitely the little brother," Three Chimneys Vice Chairman Doug Cauthen said of Fortune Ticket last year. "He’s not very big, but he’s athletic and acts like he wants to try to do something. We’ll just keep letting him proceed and see what happens," said
Fortune Ticket went into serious training last spring, logging workouts from May until July. Sent back to the farm until November, he returned to Fair Grounds to prepare for this debut, with his latest of 17 published breezes five furlongs in 1:00.20 last sunday.
“Sometimes if you turn them out," Cauthen said last year, "they just lengthen and grow if they’re not putting all their energy into training. It wasn’t a setback other than maturity and growth."
Post time for Fortune Ticket's race is 6:28 p.m. ET.
RELATED: Fair Grounds entries and results