Having had her first foal sell recently as a short yearling for $135,000, our faith in Gun Slingin as a commercial mare looks well-founded. And with first-crop stallions continuing to be the most consistently commercially viable option, we will send her to another one of those in 2025 when she visits the exciting Speightstown son Prince of Monaco at Claiborne.
Gun Slingin’s appeal stems from the fact that she is a daughter of Horse of the Year and leading sire Gun Runner, and that she is a full-sister to the G3 winner Disarm, who was placed in the G1 Travers and G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup (he also finished 4th in the G1 Kentucky Derby). She is also a 3/4-sister to a black-type runner by Candy Ride, and a half-sister to the Venezuelan champion (who was also a black-type winner and G3-placed in the USA) Tap Daddy, by Scat Daddy.

There are no fewer than 30 black-type winners under Gun Slingin’s 3rd dam White Jasmine, including recent graded winners like Forbidden Kingdom and Angel of Empire. Also included in that number are G3 winner Scoop, by Gone West, and several other black-type runners from that sire-line, which is the sire-line of Prince of Monaco (Speightstown being a son of Gone West).
We always like when a sire-line has already worked with a mare’s female family, even more so than when the nick rating for a match rates highly. But in this case we get both, as TrueNicks calls this an “A+” on the basis of three black-type winners from just 33 runners on the Gone West/Candy Ride cross, including G1 winner Town Cruise.
We also love this matchup physically, as Gun Slingin is a long, racy mare who will be well-suited by the leggy, physically-imposing Prince of Monaco.

And as mentioned here previously, we’re very excited about Prince of Monaco’s chances. Bred by Stonestreet Farm, Prince of Monaco is a son of the Eclipse Champion, leading sire, and sire-of-sires Speightstown, out of a young Medaglia d’Oro mare from a wickedly fast female family. This is probably Speightstown’s best cross, as the other successful runners bred that way include Grade 1 winners Rock Fall, Olympiad and Competitionofideas. Prince of Monaco’s pedigree and fantastic physical led him to be purchased by “the Avengers” group at Saratoga for just shy of a million dollars.
Debuting over 5 furlongs at 2 for Bob Baffert, Prince of Monaco won by 8 and was named a TDN Rising Star. In his second start, he set a stakes record in the Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes, earning a 103 Beyer Speed Figure, and he then triumphed in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity as a 1/9 shot, making him the only Grade 1-winning juvenile colt sired by Speightstown over that stallion’s long and successful stud career.
Prince of Monaco returned at 3 to finish a close 2nd in both of Saratoga’s historic, Grade 1, 7-furlong sophomore sprints, namely the Woody Stephens and the H. Allen Jerkens. His Ragozin numbers in both of those races were better than the winners’. He retired with three wins and two 2nds from six starts, and figures to have a huge chance to join Speightstown’s successful stallion sons!