As a young Curlin mare who is the first foal from a well-bred dam whose subsequent foals have sold as yearlings for $300,000, $485,000 and $375,000, respectively, Saucily has an extremely commercial profile. As such, she’ll get a shot with a first-year stallion in 2026 in an attempt to maximize the commerciality of her foal. The mate that we’ve picked for her is one of those that we’re most excited about from this intake, the multiple G1-winning Gun Runner son Locked.
Locked was a G1 winner as a 2YO in Keeneland’s Breeders’ Futurity, after earning TDN Rising Stardom in his second start at Saratoga. He then was 3rd in the G1 BC Juvenile to become an Eclipse Award finalist. While he missed the Triple Crown trail the following spring, Locked returned to the races late in the year and was an impressive winner of a 7 furlong allowance race by 7-1/2 lengths, and then took the G2 Cigar Mile over older horses, including Book’em Danno, Mullikin, Post Time and Senor Buscador.
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After finishing 2nd in the G1 Pegasus to kick off his 4YO campaign, Locked won the historic G1 Santa Anita Handicap by the largest margin in the history of the race (8-1/2 lengths) at the classic American distance of 1-1/4 miles. He concluded his career with a gutsy victory in the G2 Woodward Stakes despite being up against it in a three-horse field, retiring with six wins in 11 starts (only once as far back as 4th place) and $1.9 million in earnings.
A $425k yearling purchase, Locked is a long, leggy individual who gets plenty of his physical from his Horse of the Year sire, who has continued his meteoric rise at stud in 2025 and will stand the 2026 season for $250,000 live foal. Locked will be an excellent physical complement to the slightly smaller and more compact Saucily, and ought to stretch her foal out a bit.
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Saucily’s female family has had some success with Gun Runner already (there’s a black-type runner by him under her third dam), and with his Fappiano sire-line more generally (G2 winner Interestatedaydream is under her second dam, along with a black-type horse by Liam’s Map under each of her second and third dams). TrueNicks rates the Candy Ride/Curlin cross as a “B+”, led by G3 winner White Frost and the ‘25 black-type winner Headline Numbers (by Gun Runner and out of a Curlin mare, and back on the worktab at Payson in December for Chad Brown/Klaravich). Gun Runner also excels with mares by Tapit (Saucily’s broodmare sire, a cross good for ten BTWs so far — including ‘26 Triple Crown hopeful Paladin — and an “A+” on TrueNicks).
So this is a mating that makes sense for plenty of reasons, and we’re excited to see what Saucily produces by Locked in ‘27!