both won at Phoenix in 2005, and Kurt has notched 16 top-10s in 27 starts. He has finished in the top seven in six of his last seven attempts, but with a 34-point deficit to Logano and Kyle Busch

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- All year long, Gun Runner had dodged no one when frequently competing against the very best 3-year-olds of 2016.Late Friday afternoon, beneath the glare of the Churchill Downs lights, the hard-knocking colt finally got his first Grade 1 victory, leading wire to wire in the 142nd running of the $500,000 Clark Handicap, the annual marquee race of the fall meet.He deserved this, said Steve Asmussen, who trains Gun Runner for the partnership of Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm. All those Grade 1 winners hed beaten, all the good races hed run. Im really happy for the horse and everyone involved.Sent away the 2-1 favorite as the only 3-year-old in a field of 10, Gun Runner made the early lead from post 1, with jockey Florent Geroux finding himself on a solo lead that seemed unlikely -- at least on paper.The expected frontrunner in the 1-1/8-mile race, Noble Bird, broke tardily under Julien Leparoux and quickly found himself in traffic, altering the complexion of the race as Gun Runner went unchallenged on opening fractions of 23.72 and 48 seconds.That horse [Noble Bird] doesnt always break well, so was I surprised I was by myself? Yes and no, said Geroux.He does that sometimes, Leparoux said afterward with a shrug. He doesnt break for some reason.Into the far turn, Noble Bird had made his way up to the flank of Gun Runner as the closest pursuer, but with a quarter-mile remaining, Noble Bird was spent and Geroux was bracing for Breaking Lucky, a 46-1 shot who was in full flight and angling out to challenge. Geroux put Gun Runner to a drive, and soon it was all over, with the final margin being 2-3/4 lengths.Breaking Lucky, ridden by Luis Contreras, finished another 3-1/2 lengths before Shaman Ghost. Hoppertunity was fourth, followed by Hawaakom, Effinex, Noble Bird, Are You Kidding Me, Prayer for Relief, and Mr. Z.Gun Runner returned $6.20 after after finishing 1-1/8 miles in 1:48.50 over a fast track. Under handicap conditions, he carried 118 pounds, six fewer than Hoppertunity, the 2014 Clark winner as a 3-year-old.Geroux, who rode Gun Runner in every one of the colts starts this year, was effusive in his praise.He ran in some very tough races all year, he said. Most of the other 3-year-olds are gone, referring to the retirements of Nyquist, Exaggerator, and Creator. Hes a pretty amazing horse.Gun Runner, a chestnut Kentucky-bred by Candy Ride, won the Risen Star and Louisiana Derby before finishing third at 10-1 behind Nyquist and Exaggerator in the Kentucky Derby. Withheld from the Preakness and Belmont, he then won the Matt Winn at Churchill in preparation for the Haskell, in which he turned in his only subpar finish of the year when fifth. He then was third in the Travers, second in the Pennsylvania Derby, and second in his first try against older horses in the Nov. 4 Breeders Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita.Asmussen and David Fiske, racing manager for Winchell, were slow to commit to the Clark before the colt breezed an easy half-mile here Monday.We were aware of this race, aware of the prospects, said Asmussen. Being just three weeks after the Breeders Cup, we wanted to make sure.Gun Runner will travel in the next few days to Asmussens main winter base, the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. He will be pointed to a 4-year-old campaign, with the $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream being a possibility, said Doug Cauthen, vice chairman for Three Chimneys.Gun Runner finishes the year with four wins, two seconds, and two thirds from nine starts. The $294,500 winners share from the Clark lifts his earnings to $1,970,880 for 2016.The $2 exacta (1-7) paid $152.40, the $1 trifecta (1-7-4) returned $492.10, and the 10-cent superfecta (1-7-4-9) was worth $215.26.Racing resumes Saturday at Churchill with a 12-race Stars of Tomorrow card featuring twin 2-year-old stakes, the Kentucky Jockey Club and Golden Rod. The Single 6 jackpot (races 7-12) stands at $163,510 for Saturday.The 21-day fall meet ends Sunday with a 12-race card and a mandatory dispersal of the Single 6 pool. Post time daily is 1 p.m. Eastern.Jrue Holiday Jersey . The Olympic champion curler and TSN curling analyst immediately went online to look at the Halls long list of honoured members. Thats when the enormity of the honour sunk in. Jahlil Okafor Pelicans Jersey . NBA officials ruled the court unplayable in the Bucks final exhibition game on Oct. 25 because players were slipping, and the game was cancelled midway through the first period. http://www.shoppelicansonline.com/Authentic-Jahlil-Okafor-Pelicans-Jersey/ . 4 Villanova with a 96-68 drubbing on Monday. Wragge hit 9-of-14 from behind the arc, matching Kyle Korvers school record for 3-pointers in a game set in 2003, as Creighton (16-3, 6-1 Big East broke a conference record with 21 treys in the rout. ETwaun Moore Jersey . Malkin got tangled up with Detroits Luke Glendening early in the third period and his left skate took the brunt of collision with the boards behind Pittsburghs net. ETwaun Moore Pelicans Jersey . There was no hesitation from the 40th-ranked Pospisil, from Vernon, B.C., who admitted that he cut back on his training sessions over the last few days to conserve energy as the long ATP season finishes next week at the Paris Masters.AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards are already locked into NASCARs final four. Many people believe Kevin Harvick is almost a lock, given his record in recent years at Phoenix International Raceway.So whos left? Who are the other drivers fighting for the right to race for the 2016 Sprint Cup Championship next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway?This is the third year for the elimination-style Chase, and Sundays Can-Am 500 at PIR has the potential to produce the kind of playoff-level drama to identify the Homestead contenders that NASCAR was hoping for when it shook up the championship format.There will be 40 drivers trying to win the 312-lap race, but the stakes are higher for those who remain Chase-eligible: Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch. And, of course, Harvick, whose mastery of Phoenix will be put to the test as he tries to rally from seventh in the standings into the top four.Theres a tremendous scrap going on for the final two open transfers, with Logano and the trio of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates -- Kyle Busch, Kenseth and Hamlin -- all separated by just two points. Meanwhile, Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch face the longest odds. Harvick is 16 points out of fourth place in the points, while Buschs 34-point deficit puts him in a must-win situation.Harvicks chances of upping his run of five wins in his last six Cup Series starts at Phoenix will be examined in a separate story. Heres a look at the rest of the Chase-eligible contenders.Joey Logano, 4,074 points: Logano is the youngest and least experienced of the remaining eight, but he already has Final Four experience during the elimination era. Although he has never won a Cup race at Phoenix, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford is a solid performer on the desert mile, with three top-5s and eight top-10s in 15 starts. He has finished top-10 in six of his last seven races at Phoenix, including a third-place in the November 2015 event.This has been a good racetrack for us, Logano said. In the past we have run really well here. We havent gotten the win yet, but we have come really close and we had a good car here in the spring, as well.Logano realizes that much of the focus Sunday will be on Harvick and the three Gibbs Toyota drivers, so Logano has tried to remain focused on his own task. He was quickest among the Chase-eligible drivers in the first Cup Series practice at Phoenix, running second to Ganassi Racings Kyle Larson.We have learned as a race team to worry about ourselves, Logano said. That is the only way we will control our own destiny. We also learn from what other people are doing to change what we are doing sometimes.Kyle Busch, 4,074 points: Busch owns a Phoenix win, but it came back in 2005. His career numbers include five top-5s and 14 top-10s.Busch is the defending Cup Series champion, and outside of Harvick (who has never been eliminated from a Chase round since this format was introduced in 2014), few drivers have demonstrated they are more capable of performing at their best when they need to.When you do have a championship, you dont have the same pressure and tension and kind of float through the process and let what comes to you come to you, Busch said. Thats what we did last year. This year we are doing the same sort of thing and making sure we do all the right things to have a solid Sunday so we can move on to next week.Thats what our mindset is and what our goals are.Busch knows he simply needs to stay ahead of the drivers he is racing for Final Four eligibility.We just need to make sure we finish ahead of those who we are racing, he noted. Were all so tight that it all boils down to just finishing ahead of those we are around. We have to beat the 20 [Kenseth], we have to beat the 11 [Hamlin] and we have to beat the 22 [Logano].If we do all those things,, then well be fine.ddddddddddddMatt Kenseth, 4,073 points: Given a choice, Kenseth would probably prefer to be racing for the transfer into the Final Four at a track other than Phoenix. His sole win in 27 PIR starts came back in 2002, and he has managed just six top-5s and 11 top-10s. Kenseth has finished in the top 12 at Phoenix only three times since 2010.I feel like weve had some good runs here, he said. It hasnt been our strongest track probably the last four or five years, but in the spring we didnt run bad. I think when were on, we can be competitive here.Kenseth refuses to believe that having three JGR drivers fighting over the remaining two transfer spots will hurt the teams efforts in the lead-up to Sundays race.I think that we work better together as a group than anything Ive ever been part of, he said. So far that hasnt changed at all over the four years that Ive been there. So I wouldnt think that it would change this weekend, and I wouldnt think it would change next weekend.Certainly, once the race starts, obviously were all trying to get the best finishes we can for our respective teams, he added. But I think during the weekend we all share everything we learn throughout practice, bounce ideas off of each other, and try to as a group come up with the best setups that we can for Sunday.?Denny Hamlin, 4,072 points: Of the remaining Final Four hopefuls outside of Harvick, Hamlin has the best record at Phoenix, with a win in 2012 and 10 top-5s. However, he has racked up three finishes of 19th or worse since that win.Hamlin was at the center of the Gibbs teams controversy after the race two weeks ago at Martinsville, with Kenseth and Busch believing he may have blocked them from achieving better finishes. The third-place that Hamlin earned that day may prove to be important in the event that a tiebreaker is involved in sorting out the points for Homestead.Were all going to battle each other hard and race each other as hard as we can because we all ultimately know that we have to beat each other to get in, he said. You do it as fair and clean as you can.For me, if I dont make it, we just didnt run good enough, he added. If we dont make it, its not my teammates fault -- its our own. We know we have to run up front, and every position matters.Hamlin admitted that he wouldnt have any issues with roughing up a competitor late in the race at Phoenix for one of the transfer spots to Homestead, but said he would draw the line at wrecking a teammate.Thats my answer today, he joked.If one of my teammates wrecks me this weekend, Ill be mad for a couple days and Ill get over it, he added. I mean, its just part of it. I respect them all enough to understand that we are competitors, but we are also teammates, and thats a very fine line. Youre going to have hurt feelings here and there because we are battling each other -- which is what we all wanted to do.Kurt Busch, 4,040 points: The Busch brothers both won at Phoenix in 2005, and Kurt has notched 16 top-10s in 27 starts. He has finished in the top seven in six of his last seven attempts, but with a 34-point deficit to Logano and Kyle Busch, he knows that a win on Sunday is his only realistic chance of advancing to Homestead.Lots of math can be thrown into it, and theres other variables with teammates that are in and teammates that are out, but in all honesty, it comes down to raw speed, it comes down to execution and being able to have the perfect type of race, Busch said. This type of format demands perfection and being able to win at any moment to continue to advance or to win the title.You just give it your all, he added. Theres no second-guessing things. You go for it, dont look back, and you try to be your best at that moment. ' ' '