A year ago, Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, Brook Smith, and other partners were represented in the Risen Star Stakes (G2) by a pair of expensive Gun Runner colts: Sierra Leone and Hall of Fame .
Sierra Leone would shine that afternoon at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots and, three months later, came within a nose of victory in the Kentucky Derby (G1) for trainer Chad Brown. He would culminate his season with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) and would later be honored with an Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old male of 2024.
Hall of Fame would not find such immediate success, running seventh in the Risen Star and 10th in the Louisiana Derby (G2). He was then given time off to fill out his large frame, according to his Hall of Fame trainer, Steve Asmussen.
He has not taken a misstep yet. Victorious in allowance and allowance optional claiming races at Churchill Downs and Fair Grounds, he stepped up in class Feb. 15 and won the $247,500 Mineshaft Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds.
Tracking a slow early pace of :24.46, :48.60, and 1:12.63 in the two-turn, 1 1/16-mile race, he angled out from his inside position and ran down a stubborn Komorebino Omoide to prevail by a head after the two bumped down the stretch. Stewards dismissed a claim of foul lodged by Jansen Melancon on runner-up Komorebino Omoide.
Hall of Fame was clocked on fast track in 1:42.89, .88 off Olympiad ‘s track record in this race in 2022. The winner paid $5.40 for a $2 win wager.
“Being slow the first half a mile and him being so close to the track record is amazing,” said Fair Grounds’ leading rider Jose Ortiz, who captured four races on the card.
Pacesetting Maycocks Bay ran third, and slow-starting Batten Down was fourth.
The winner, bred by Earle Mack in Kentucky, is a 4-year-old chestnut out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Flag Day . Hall of Fame was a $1.4 million purchase in 2022 by M.V. Magnier from the Denali Stud consignment to Fasig-Tipton’s The Saratoga Sale.
He earned $150,000 Saturday for his ownership, which includes Kuldeep Singh Rajput’s Gandharvi operation. The winner is now 4-1-0 in seven races with career earnings of $322,960.
Hall of Fame “is a very exciting horse, tremendous family, an absolutely beautiful, Adonis-looking son of Gun Runner that is putting it together extremely well right now,” Asmussen said.
The colt is the second graded stakes winner of 2025 for Gun Runner after the Asmussen-trained Recharge scored in last month’s Houston Ladies Classic Stakes (G3). Gun Runner stands for a $250,000 fee this year at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky.
Video: Mineshaft S. Presented by Relyne GI By Hagyard (G3)
Taking Candy Scores in Fair Grounds Stakes
A half-hour later, another promising horse earned his first stakes victory when Lael Stables’ Taking Candy rallied to prevail by a length in the $175,000 Fair Grounds Stakes (G3T) under Irad Ortiz Jr.
The Cherie DeVaux trainee ran 1 1/8 miles on firm turf in 1:50.44, returning $8.60 to win.
Front-running Higgins Boat held second ahead of third-place What Say Thee and fourth-place Idratherbeblessed .
Taking Candy, bred in Kentucky by KatieRich Farms, is by Twirling Candy out of the Trappe Shot mare Taking Aim . He was a $400,000 purchase from the Eddie Woods consignment to the Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training in 2022.
Twirling Candy stands for $60,000 at Lane’s End in Kentucky.
