Pappacap , winner of the 2021 Best Pal Stakes (G2) at Del Mar and a near-millionaire son of leading sire Gun Runner , has been retired and will stand the 2024 breeding season at Gary Broad’s Walmac Farm, the farm announced Sept. 5. His stud fee has been set at $12,500.
Rustlewood Farm’s homebred won his career debut in May of his 2-year-old year by 2 3/4 lengths at Gulfstream Park with trainer Mark Casse. He was then sent west for the Best Pal, where he struck the front in upper stretch and kicked clear with a furlong remaining to score by 4 3/4 lengths ahead of subsequent grade 1-placed stakes winner Finneus .
In his initial two-turn start, Pappacap was a game runner-up to eventual Eclipse champion 2-year-old male Corniche in the 1 1/16-mile American Pharoah Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park. Pappacap closed out a stellar juvenile campaign with another strong second-place finish to that rival in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) at Del Mar following an eventful trip. Forced to check heading into the first turn, Pappacap settled into stride along the inside and chased the undefeated winner home in a determined effort.
At 3, Pappacap competed almost exclusively against the best of his generation, finishing second to top sophomore Jack Christopher in both the Woody Stephens Stakes (G1) and the Pat Day Mile Stakes (G2), and third in the Lecomte Stakes (G3) to Call Me Midnight and Epicenter , who went on to capture the Travers Stakes (G1) after placing in the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness Stakes (G1) and was voted champion 3-year-old male at season’s end.
Pappacap retired with a 2-4-2 record from 12 starts and earned $842,430. Matt Bowling of Bowling Bloodstock brokered the stallion deal with Walmac.
George and Karen Russell bred Pappacap in Florida out of the graded stakes-placed Scat Daddy mare Pappascat, who finished second in the 2014 Cardinal Handicap (G3) at Churchill Downs. The mare has produced four winners from four to race, including 2022 With Anticipation Stakes (G3T) winner Boppy O (Bolt d’Oro ). Pappascat is out of the stakes-placed Red Ransom winner Redmeansgo, who is a half sister to Al Qasr , Peru’s 2012 Horse of the Year and a multiple champion titleholder in 2011-12, in addition to U.S. stakes winners Delicate Dynamite and Xaverian .
Gun Runner was named 2017 Horse of the Year and champion older male and entered stud at Three Chimneys after winning six grade 1 stakes and earning $15,988,500. The son of Candy Ride became a record-setting leading freshman sire of 2021 with progeny earnings exceeding $4.27 million and four graded stakes winners, including two grade 1 winners. Gun Runner also led his sire class during its second-crop year with more than $14.6 million in progeny earnings and nine graded stakes winners.
