Gun Pilot made an ambitious leap in competition entering Saturday's $1-million Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes, and it paid off in a big way, earning his first career stakes victory with a powerful kick down the stretch.
The 4-year-old son of Gun Runner was positioned in the middle of the pack, as Here Mi Song dictated the pace from the rail, followed closely by Zozos. Here Mi Song led the way through an opening quarter-mile in :22.66 seconds, and he carried on through a half-mile in :44.87 seconds.
Jockey Cristian Torres sat in the pocket with Gun Pilot in fourth, behind leader Here Mi Song, with Zozos and post time favorite Hoist the Gold filling the paths on his outside. When a hole opened up between Zozos and Hoist the Gold at the top of the stretch, Torres shot the gap with his mount and brought him up to compete with Here Mi Song and Zosos at the three-sixteenths pole.
Gun Pilot got ahead of the early leaders with an eighth of a mile to go, and under mild urging, he kicked away to win over pacesetter Here Mi Song by 2 1/2 lengths. Zozos continued on to run third, a neck behind the runner-up.
Gun Pilot stopped the clock in 1:21.95 over a fast main track. He paid $12.68 to win as the betting public's third choice.
Saturday's victory was Gun Pilot's fifth victory in 11 career starts, bringing his earnings up to $975,575 for owner/breeder Three Chimneys Farm and trainer Steve Asmussen. Saturday's race was Asmussen's third victory in the Churchill Downs Stakes, adding to Eclipse Award-winning company in the trainer's barn: Mitole in 2019 and Jackie's Warrior in 2022.
The Churchill Downs was also the first Grade 1 victory for jockey Torres, the leading rider at Oaklawn Park.
Saturday's race was an astounding improvement of form for Gun Pilot, who finished out of the money in his three previous graded stakes tries; the most recent being a fifth-place finish in last year's G1 Woody Stephens Stakes to finish his 2023 campaign.
He won his first two starts of 2024, taking six-furlong allowance optional claiming races at Fair Grounds and Oaklawn Park, then he jumped up to stakes company for his start prior to the Churchill Downs, running a gaining second in the non-graded Eclipse Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
Gun Pilot is a homebred for Three Chimneys Farm, out of the unraced Smart Strike mare Bush Pilot, who the farm acquired for $425,000 at the 2018 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
To view the Equibase chart, click here.
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