Robert J. Hunt’s Runaway Storm has been aiming for the Grade 1 Arlington Million at Colonial Downs for more than a year, and assuming all goes well between now and the Aug. 9 Festival of Racing headline event, the Ethan West trainee who won the 2023 Bryan Station (G3) will get his shot at his second graded stakes score.
“We were actually targeting the Million last year,” West said. “We could only get one start into him before the Million, but we were okay with it because he ran really good off an eight-month layoff to just get beat a nose by Money Supply. But (after that race) he had a little bit of a setback. By the time he was going to get back up and going, it would have been the dead of winter. So we figured we’d just give him time off until the first of the year, then get him back up as a 5-year-old and campaign him towards the Million.”
In his first of two races so far this year, both on the turf at Horseshoe Indianapolis, Runaway Storm ran a troubled sixth. Most recently in the Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial Stakes, he led throughout but was run down by Encino, earning a consecutive second-place finish in the event.
“If you watch the last race at Indiana, he never stopped but just got beat by a good horse,” West said. “In the gallop out, his jockey couldn’t get him stopped until the half-mile pole going down the backside.”
In the 2023 Grade 3 Virginia Derby, Runaway Storm ran valiantly in defeat to Integration, setting extremely fast fractions but never throwing in the towel to finish third.
“He’s one of those horses that lays it down every time you lead him over,” West said.
After the Virginia Derby, Runaway Storm went to Keeneland for the Bryan Station and earned his young trainer’s first graded stakes title. The gelded son of Midnight Storm who was known for doing his best running on the lead, came from off the pace in the Bryan Station and tenaciously fought off Talk of the Nation in a thrilling photo finish.
“He just walked out of the gates that day and took a completely different approach to his running style,” West said. “I wish he would relax and have that running style more often. But he’s just a very heavy horse, a very strong horse. And he’s a very tough horse to break. We’ve never sent him and asked him to go to the lead. He just does it on his own. So he’s always kind of just been a front runner and even though he doesn’t explode down the lane, he doesn’t stop running.”
Runaway Storm broke his maiden going nine furlongs and proved himself again at that distance with his third in the Virginia Derby, but at 1¼ miles over the turf, the Arlington Million will be his longest distance test to date.
“If we can get him to relax a little bit and harness that early speed, I think we’ll be fine),” West said.
So far this year West has accomplished a major milestone with Chunk of Gold earning a spot in Kentucky Derby 151. If Runaway Storm proves best in the Arlington Million, the 32-year-old who is based year-round at Turfway Park would achieve another first, surpassing $1 million in earnings for the first time in his eight-year career.
Arlington Million Probables
With entries for Colonial Downs Festival of Racing Day set to be drawn on Saturday, Aug. 2, the field for the Grade 1 Arlington Million is beginning to take shape.
Along with Runaway Storm, international juggernaut the Irish-bred Cairo is readying to ship to New Kent for trainer Alice Haynes. Having achieved multiple group two and group three placings around the globe, the 5-year-old son of Quality Road finished third last out in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Last year’s Arlington Million runner-up to Nations Pride, Integration is set to return for trainer Shug McGaughey. The 2023 Virginia Derby winner boasts $1,643,950 in career earnings, including three local scores.
Traimner Todd Pletcher plans to enter multiple graded stakes winner Grand Sonata.. Whisper Hill Farm’s homebred ran second last out in the United Nations (G2), and the 6-year-old horse has amassed $2,244,935 in lifetime earnings
With purse money totaling $2.5 million over seven stakes, the 2025 Colonial Downs Festival of Racing program also includes the Grade 2 $500,000 Beverly D., the Grade 2 $500,000 Secretariat Stakes, the $100,000 Petramalo Mile, the $100,000 Tyson Gilpin, the $150,000 Van Clief, and the $150,000 Andy Guest.
Tickets for the Colonial Downs Festival of Racing can be purchased at www.colonialdowns.com.
Colonial’s races will be prominently featured on FanDuel TV all season long. Additionally, FanDuel TV will be on-site for coverage of the Festival of Racing on August 9.
