Tanya Gunther

Pop quiz: what do 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify and Atomic Blonde, dam of last week's GI Preakness Stakes winner Napoleon Solo (Liam's Map), have in common? Both are by Scat Daddy, both were bred by the Gunther family, and both were raised at Glennwood Farm near Versailles, Kentucky. Justify and Atomic Blonde also have something else in common with a number of other Glennwood-bred and -raised Grade I winners such as Vino Rosso, Tamarkuz, First Samurai, and Stevie Wonderboy. "We do tend to raise some good chestnuts on this...

Everybody knows Glennwood to be a paragon of its type yet somehow few farms seem able to treat it as a model. For one thing, John Gunther and his daughter Tanya have shown that ultimately there is nothing more commercial than putting winners under your mare, a rather inconvenient lesson for those who favor the just-add-water solution of remorselessly using one rookie sire after another. More fundamentally, however, it's pardonably difficult for anyone to emulate the sheer skill with which the Gunthers cultivate their families. When Scat Daddy disastrously dropped...

There was much consternation when only three new Flat stallions retired to stand in Britain for the 2025 season. It remains to be seen whether this was a blip, but if it becomes a trend then obviously it is cause for concern. It is easy to understand why, in an increasingly commercial sphere, breeders would either flock to the proven elite (for those with mares good enough and pockets deep enough) or to the next first-season sire on the block who may be forgiven for a year or two until...

8th-KEE, $110K, Msw, 3yo, f, 7f, 4:44 p.m. ET. PLAY WITH MAGIC is set for her unveiling under the care of trainer Cherie DeVaux. Bred by Glenwood's John D. Gunther and his daughter Tanya on the same Mendelssohn-Ghostzapper cross as GSW Somethinabouther, the late May foal is out 2018 Broodmare of the Year Stage Magic (Ghostzapper). This dam's productivity includes one of the top North American sires in Justify (Scat Daddy), GSW The Lieutenant (Street Sense) and SW Stage Raider (Pioneerof the Nile). Stage Magic is also responsible for a...

John Gunther's Glennwood Farm bred and raised Triple Crown champion Justify, as well as Grade I stakes winners First Samurai, Mo Town, Stay Thirsty, Tamarkuz, and Vino Rosso. The farm's recent graduates also include Grade I stakes winner Leslie's Rose and Grade I stakes performer Grand Mo The First. The pair represented the operation in the 2024 Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby, respectively.    Tanya Gunther discussed Glennwood's 2025 mating plans, as well as hopes for new stallion Stage Raider, a half-brother to Justify, who begins his stud career this...

Peter Bradley, Bradley Thoroughbreds Gold: MCKINZIE Street Sense--Runway Model, by Petionville Gainesway Farm, $75,000 Even though his stud fee more than doubled, McKinzie may be the best bang for the buck at $75,000 this season. A Grade I winner at two, three and four, he completed his racing career at five with a Grade II win. His precocity, soundness and class are all evident in his first crop to race. Narrowly missing out on the Champion First-Crop Sire title, he has already produced four Grade I performers including Grade I...

In those days, everything on the waterfront was done by hand. John Gunther especially remembers the 120lbs sacks of flour he had to haul onto Russian ships, month after month. But then the one thing he could always do was work. Back in Alberta, on the farm where he was raised, he would shift 10,000 bales of hay every summer. Yet he has only ever been wiry in build. There has plainly always been some other source of strength. In the Latin phrase, multum in parvo: he condenses "much into...

Stakes-winning Stage Raider (Pioneerof the Nile--Stage Magic, by Ghostzapper), a half-brother to Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy), has been retired from racing and will take up stud duties next year at Pope McLean's Crestwood Farm. Bred and campaigned by John Gunther, Stage Raider won last year's R.A. Cowboy Jones Stakes at Ellis Park and was third in the GIII Ack Ack Stakes at Churchill Downs. "My dad and I really believe in this horse and we are excited to start him on his new stallion career," said Tanya Gunther....

6th-SAR, $100k, 2yo, f, 5 1/2fT, post time: 4:02 p.m. ET GOOD CONDUCT (Without Parole {GB}), the sire of five individual winners to date, becomes the first American runner for her Newsells Park Stud-based freshman sire (by Frankel {GB}), who carried the silks of Glennwood Farm's John and Tanya Gunther to victory in the 2019 G1 St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. He also finished a third in a trio of Grade I events in this country while under the care of Chad Brown, including the Breeders' Cup Mile...

By Emma Berry and Brian Sheerin NEWMARKET, UK--From a muted opening, Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale picked up the pace on Wednesday with a further four seven-figure lots gracing the ring. These sparked some solid bidding wars between established superpowers such as Coolmore, Godolphin and Juddmonte, with a decent representation of newer players from Bahrain and other Gulf nations, and strong participation from American-based Mike Ryan and Chad Brown. The ripples of Frankel (GB) combined with Hascombe & Valiant Stud were felt on the turf of Longchamp...

Next week, the first yearlings by Darley's dual champion Too Darn Hot (GB) will be offered for sale at the Arqana August Yearling Sale. Expectations were always going to be high for Too Darn Hot--a son of sire of sires Dubawi (Ire), out of the triple Group 1-winning mare Dar Re Mi (GB) (Singspiel {Ire}), from the deep family of the prodigious sire Darshaan (GB). An undefeated champion at two who repeated as champion at three, he also achieved the best foal sales average of 2021. But uniquely, it will...

Tanya Gunther was thrilled to watch the latest 'TDN Rising Star' Justique (Justify) trounce the competition in her breathtaking debut, but the horsewoman admitted that a few thoughts of what could have been flashed through her head as she remembered the promising filly's early days spent at Glennwood Farm. "I didn't really want to sell her," Gunther said with an acquiescing smile. "Most of our yearlings do go to the sale, but I was a bit sad when we let her go." Bred by Tanya's father John Gunther in partnership...