[Kasept]

Door opens at least a crack for Gun Runner to go to Pegasus
By Marcus Hersh

The decision by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry to lift a quarantine of the Fair Grounds backstretch on Jan. 21 puts Fair Grounds-based Gun Runner one step closer to racing in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream.

The state-administered quarantine due to an outbreak of equine herpesvirus will be lifted Saturday for 42 barns in which there have been no reported incidences of the virus provided no further cases are reported in the next two days. Gun Runner is stabled in a barn in which there have been no EHV-1 cases.

David Fiske, the racing manager for co-owner Ron Winchell, said Wednesday afternoon that should the quarantine been lifted the Pegasus would be "very much in play" for Gun Runner, who has been trained to make the race, should the chance arise, and is scheduled to work again this weekend. Twelve horse already are listed as starters in the race, a full field, but Gun Runner's owners could have a deal to swap their horse for one of the announced starters if it becomes possible.

But there would be several hurdles still to clear. A Fair Grounds movement restriction barring horses coming into and going out of the track remained in place late Wednesday afternoon. Even if that restriction - at least for horses leaving the track - is lifted, Gun Runner would have to be cleared to ship into Florida in general and Gulfstream in particular, both of which might be unwilling to accept any horses from Fair Grounds so close to the EHV-1 event. There have, however, been no cases of the far more serious neuropathogenic strain of the EHV-1 virus reported since Dec. 31, and the horse that tested positive that day has recovered and returned a negative test Tuesday.