PROFILE
| Foaled: | May 5, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Racing Circuit: | California |
| Color/Sex: | NA |
| Sire: | Gun Runner |
| Dam: | Restless Rider |
| Dam Sire: | Distorted Humor |
| Trainer: | Bob Baffert |
HORSE OVERVIEW
Late in the final session of the final 2-year-old sale of the season–OBS June–MyRacehorse fended off all challengers to take home a regally bred daughter of super sire Gun Runner out of Grade 1 winner Restless Rider (Distorted Humor) for $525K. She will be trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert.
Despite a reported lack of preparation for the sale, the May 5 foal turned in a very controlled :10 flat breeze before showing off her stamina, galloping out in :20 ⅗ and :32 ⅘ for one of the strongest on-track moves of any horse in the sale in the MyRacehorse bloodstock team’s opinion.
The grey’s physicality matches up with her high-class pedigree and under-tack performance. She’s sturdily made and balanced with a strong forearm, good bone and beautiful hip. Classy and cerebral, she walks with the purpose of a runway model.
Hall of Famer, Horse of the Year and near $16-million earner Gun Runner’s accomplishments in the breeding shed have perhaps even exceeded what he did on the track. The champion first-crop sire of 2021, his rise up the stallion ranks has been meteoric. He was the leading sire of 3-year-olds in 2022, the top general sire in 2023 by percentage of Grade 1 winners and graded stakes winners and the number two general sire of 2024. He currently sits at number three on the general sire list, ahead of the likes of Curlin, Justify, Constitution and Not This Time, and has commanded a $250K stud fee for the 2025 breeding season–tied at the top in Kentucky with Into Mischief and Justify.
Gun Runner is responsible for an incredible 10 Grade 1 winners from just his first three crops, including last year’s champion 3-year-old male and G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sierra Leone; 2021 champion 2-year-old filly Echo Zulu; G1 Preakness S. scorer Early Voting; and this year’s G1 Santa Anita H. romper Locked.
He also sired the record-breaking $3-million OBS March ‘25 sale topper, who bears a striking resemblance to Restless Rider ‘23 and has already joined the Baffert barn.
Restless Rider took her first two starts as an early juvenile before finishing second in the 2018 G1 Spinaway S. at Saratoga. She stretched out effectively to annex Keeneland’s prestigious G1 Darley Alcibiades S. by daylight, and finished second in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies before missing by a nose in the G2 Golden Rod S. She was second by a neck in the following year’s G1 Ashland S.
Restless Rider is by exceptional broodmare sire Distorted Humor, who is responsible for the dams of no fewer than 25 highest-level winners, including Life Is Good, Arrogate, Practical Joke, Constitution, Citizen Bull, Elate, etc. Restless Rider is in fact bred on the reverse cross that produced Baffert trainee Arrogate, the sire of MyRacehorse’s 2024 G1 Preakness hero Seize the Grey.
A version of the Gun Runner over Distorted Humor cross has yielded MG1SW Cyberknife and Grade 2-winning filly Intricate.
Baffert, currently at the helm of MyRacehorse-owned leading older filly and G2 Santa Margarita S. romper Seismic Beauty, has had his own success with the Gun Runner line. He trained seven-figure 2-year-old buy and 2022 G1 Pennsylvania Derby and G1 Malibu S. hero Taiba.
Restless Rider ‘23 will have a typical post-sale break at Highlander Training Center in Texas before joining the Baffert barn in Southern California.
Expected on track: Fall 2025
Restless Rider ’23 Update
Restless Rider ’23 has been in steady training since Aug. 4 at Highlander Training Center, but we have opted to give her the last week off. She was nearing the point of being ready to breeze, but the Highlander Team didn’t love the way she was traveling up front as the intensity of her training […]