Glennwood Farm Tanya Gunther: Kentucky-based breeder has embraced European racing and bloodlines
Selling the
DREAM
Etched in history as the breeder of US Triple Crown hero Justify, Kentucky outfit Glennwood Farm is now recognised as a major player on both sides of the Atlantic Words: Julian Muscat
T
he saying holds that the only way to make a small fortune out of racing is to start with a large one. John Gunther and his daughter, Tanya, are doing it the other way round. It was just over 30 years ago that Gunther, a now-retired stockbroker from Canada, bought out his partners in the 350-acre Glennwood Farm in Versailles, Kentucky. Glennwood’s purchase marked the moment when the father/daughter axis immersed themselves in a pursuit that would enrole them into the most exclusive club of all. In June 2018 they became one of just thirteen entities to breed a US Triple Crown winner. It didn’t stop there. One year after Justify had carried all before him, a colt who’d shared his paddock at Glennwood came of age in 2019. Vino Rosso broke through as a Grade 1 winner in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita before running clean away with the Breeders’ Cup Classic. If that were not enough, on that same November afternoon Without Parole came with a late rattle to finish third in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. The son of Frankel is owned and was bred by the Gunthers,
who keep between six and ten mares annually in Europe. On that occasion Without Parole was introducing himself to American racegoers, having won the St. James’s Palace Stakes in 2018. The Gunthers were in thrall that day. They’d seen Frankel triumph on their annual visits to Royal Ascot; now they were standing in the very same winner’s circle with a homebred son of the great horse. “These things leave an impression,” Tanya says. “My dad and I went down to the rail and watched Frankel from there. Seeing him win remains a big highlight. We admired the greatness of his sire, Galileo, and it became clear to us that turf bloodlines in Europe were superior to the US. We decided to come over and try and breed to the best – even though it seemed a little crazy.” That facet identifies the Gunthers as rare among American breeders. The European scene was awash with their ilk for two decades from the mid-1960s. So much so that the Derby trophy was marked “for US export” four times in five years from 1968, when the totemic race
TANYA GUNTHER
“We decided to come over and try and breed the best to the best”
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