High Gun was an American Champion

Eclipse Award

The Eclipse Award is an American thoroughbred horse racing award named after the 18th century British racehorse and sire, Eclipse. The Eclipse Awards, honoring the champions of the sport, are sponsored by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association , Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers...

 Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 racehorse

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

. His sire, Heliopolis

Heliopolis (horse)

Heliopolis was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and Champion sire bred and raced by Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby. He was raced from age two to four and then exported during World War II to the Coldstream Stud of E. Dale Shaffer in Lexington, Kentucky and arrived at the port of New York on...

, was a two-time Leading sire in North America

Leading sire in North America

The list below shows the leading sire of Thoroughbred racehorses in North America for each year since 1830. This is determined by the amount of prizemoney won by the sire's progeny during the year...

. His dam was Rocket Gun whose damsire was the legendary Man o' War

Man O' War

Man O' War, man o' war or manowar may refer to:* Man-of-war, a warship* Man of war for uses with this spelling - Places :...

.

Trainer Max Hirsch

Max Hirsch

Maximilian J. "Max" Hirsch was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse trainer.Born in Fredericksburg, Texas, Hirsch became one of the most successful trainers in Thoroughbred horse racing history. He spent part of his formative years working as a groom and jockey at Morris Ranch in...

 purchased High Gun for Robert J. Kleberg's King Ranch

King Ranch

King Ranch, located in south Texas between Corpus Christi and Brownsville, is one of the world's largest ranches. The ranch, founded in 1853 by Captain Richard King and Gideon K. Lewis, includes portions of six Texas counties, including most of Kleberg County and much of Kenedy County, with...

 for $10,200 at the 1952 Keeneland Yearling Sale

Keeneland Sales

The Keeneland Sales is an American Thoroughbred auction house in Lexington, Kentucky founded in 1935 as a nonprofit racing/auction entity on 147 acres of farmland west of Lexington, which had been owned by Jack O. Keene...

. In 1954 High Gun was the best Three-Year-Old colt in the United States, winning the Peter Pan Handicap

Peter Pan Stakes

The Peter Pan Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually during the second week of May at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. A Grade II event, it is open to three-year-olds willing to race nine furlongs on the dirt....

, Dwyer Stakes

Dwyer Stakes

The Dwyer Stakes is an American Grade II stakes race for three-year-old thoroughbred racehorses held annually at Belmont Park racetrack in Elmont, Long Island, New York. Run in early July, it is open to three-year-old horses and is raced over a distance of 1 1/16-miles on dirt...

, the third leg of the U.S. Triple Crown

United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing

In the United States, the "Triple Crown" is usually the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, a series of three Thoroughbred horse races for three-year-old horses run in May and early June of each year consisting of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes.While Daily Racing Form...

 series, the Belmont Stakes

Belmont Stakes

The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes Thoroughbred horse race held every June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is a 1.5-mile horse race, open to three year old Thoroughbreds. Colts and geldings carry a weight of 126 pounds ; fillies carry 121 pounds...

, and then beat older horses in the Manhattan Handicap

Manhattan Handicap

The Manhattan Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race raced annually at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is named for Manhattan, the principal borough of the City of New York...

, Sysonby Mile, and Jockey Club Gold Cup

Jockey Club Gold Cup

The Jockey Club Gold Cup, established in 1919, is a prestigious thoroughbred flat race open to horses of either gender three-years-old and up. It is typically the main event of the fall meeting at Belmont Park, just as the Belmont Stakes is of the spring meeting and the Travers Stakes is of the...

. In November of that year, an injury kept High Gun out of the prestigious Washington, D.C. International Stakes won by Fisherman

Fisherman (horse)

Fisherman was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. He was bred and raced by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, a member of the prominent horse-racing Whitney family. He was out of the mare Crawfish and sired by Whitney's Phalanx, the winner of the 1947 Belmont Stakes voted American Champion...

, a colt High Gun had beaten in June's Belmont Stakes and October's Jockey Club Gold Cup.http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50814FF345A157B93C0A9178AD95F408585F9 High Gun was voted the 1954 American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/436797802.html?dids=436797802:436797802&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&date=Dec+02%2C+1954&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=High+Gun+Gets+Award+as+Top+Three-Year-Old&pqatl=google

Racing at age four in 1955, High Gun continued his winning ways, capturing two of the New York Handicap Triple

New York Handicap Triple

The New York Handicap Triple is the name used to refer to three American handicap races for older Thoroughbred racehorses run by the New York Racing Association at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York...

 races, the Metropolitan

Metropolitan Handicap

The Metropolitan Handicap, frequently called the "Met Mile," is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race held annually during the last week of May at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Open to horses age three and older, it is contested on dirt over a distance of one mile .The Met Mile was first...

 and Brooklyn

Brooklyn Handicap

The Brooklyn Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually in early June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, on Long Island. It currently is a Grade II event open to three-year-olds and up willing to race one and one-half miles on dirt....

, and was second in the third, the Suburban

Suburban Handicap

The Suburban Handicap is an American Grade II Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Open to horses age three and older, it is run at the classic one-and-one-quarter mile distance on dirt for a $400,000 purse....

. That year he followed Tom Fool

Tom Fool

Tom Fool was an American Thoroughbred racehorse, a winner of the American Horse of the Year award and a Hall of Fame inductee. He sired the outstanding racehorses Buckpasser and Tim Tam....

 as the only horses to ever win the Sysonby Mile twice, doing it by defeating the great Nashua

Nashua (horse)

Nashua was an American-born thoroughbred racehorse, perhaps best remembered for a 1955 match race against the horse that had defeated him in the Kentucky Derby.Nashua's sire was the good, but temperamental, European champion Nasrullah...

. High Gun was voted his second Champion's title as the 1955 American Champion Older Male Horse.

After three years of racing, High Gun was retired to stud

Stud (animal)

A stud animal is a registered animal retained for breeding. The terms for the male of a given animal species usually imply that the animal is entire—that is, not castrated—and therefore capable of siring offspring...

duty but was not successful.