Ascot Stud’s inform stallion Global View hails from a top-class family, and this family got yet another boost when the classy four-year-old Gun Pilot won the G1 Churchill Downs Stakes presented by Ford over seven furlongs.
The son of Gun Runner was positioned in the middle of the pack, as Here Mi Song dictated the pace from the rail, followed closely by Zozos. Here Mi Song led the way through an opening quarter-mile in:22.66 seconds, and he carried on through a half-mile in :44.87 seconds.
Jockey Cristian Torres sat in the pocket with Gun Pilot in fourth, behind leader Here Mi Song, with Zozos and post-time favorite Hoist the Gold filling the paths on his outside. When a hole opened up between Zozos and Hoist the Gold at the top of the stretch, Torres shot the gap with his mount and brought him up to compete with Here Mi Song and Zosos at the three-sixteenths pole.

Gun Pilot got ahead of the early leaders with an eighth of a mile to go, and under mild urging, he kicked away to win over pacesetter Here Mi Song by 2 1/2 lengths. Zozos continued on to run third, a neck behind the runner-up.
Saturday’s victory was Gun Pilot’s fifth victory in 11 career starts, bringing his earnings up to $975,575 for owner/breeder Three Chimneys Farm and trainer Steve Asmussen.
The well-bred colt is out of the unraced Smart Strike mare Bush Pilot, a half-sister to none other than Global View.
Multiple graded stakes winner Global View and Bush Pilot were both produced by the unraced Storm Cat mare Egyptian Queen, herself a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner A P Warrior.
Further back, this is also the family of champion and hugely influential stallion Storm Bird (sire of, among others, the aforementioned Storm Cat!)