The last time Mystik Dan raced at Churchill Downs, he snuck up the rail under Brian Hernandez Jr. and won a three-horse photo finish to capture the Kentucky Derby. Thirteen months later, in the Grade 3, $275,000 Blame Stakes on Saturday, Mystik Dan can finally, fully validate that Derby victory.
Mystik Dan finished a decent, if unspectacular, second in the Preakness, barely lifted his hooves in the Belmont, rested the remainder of the summer and into autumn, returned to action with a distant sixth Dec. 26 in the Malibu Stakes, then checked in a dismal ninth a month later in the Pegasus World Cup.
A year after his Derby, Mystik Dan ran like a Derby winner. He did not win the Lake Ouachita Stakes at Oaklawn Park but lost by a nose to crack miler Saudi Crown, matching his career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 101. He has since worked twice at Churchill and on video looked strong under Hernandez in a half-mile drill with a strong gallop-out May 24.
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“Brian said it’s as good as he’s ever felt him. We’re just trying to get him back to his old self,” trainer Kenny McPeek said.
While the Blame, carded for 1 1/8 miles, serves as a prep for the Grade 1 Stephen Foster next month, it drew a field befitting a higher-level race. But the field it drew will not be the field that starts. Katonah and Best Actor, longshots both, run Sunday in an allowance race. Most Wanted, a key contender, also was entered in Sunday’s allowance. Trainer Brad Cox said Wednesday and again Thursday he wasn’t sure where Most Wanted would start.
Banishing long has been a candidate for the Met Mile next week at Saratoga, and trainer David Jacobson, like Cox, wasn’t sure mid-week what he’d do. Banishing could run in the Blame, skip the Blame and run in the Met Mile, or even start in both races. Jacobson has never shied from wheeling horses back on short rest.
The other entrants are Alexander Helios, winner of the Grade 3 Razorback two starts ago; Antiquarian, fifth in the Belmont last June and making his second start after a long layoff; Hall of Fame, third in the Alysheba earlier this month behind division leader Fierceness and Most Wanted; Post Time, a fast-closing second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile last fall; and longshot Tennessee Lamb, who won the Grade 3 Ben Ali at Keeneland last month but can’t hang with this bunch.
McPeek blames himself for Mystik Dan’s poor winter performance. He said he made a mistake sending the colt on a two-day van ride from Fair Grounds to Santa Anita for the Malibu and that he should have passed the Pegasus. That’s all water under the bridge if Mystik Dan can take a step forward from his last race, where he chased loose leader Saudi Crown and made a strong run at him. With ample pace in the Blame, Mystik Dan could be best served by a stalking trip; McPeek said that’s all in Hernandez’s hands.
“The horse when he’s good, he’s very push-button,” McPeek said.
Most Wanted, a progressive 4-year-old, comes off three strong second-place finishes, the Clark last fall at Churchill and the Challenger this spring at Tampa preceding his Alysheba. He projects for a pressing trip outside Alexander Helios, who drew inside and has more speed than he showed last out in the Oaklawn Handicap, where he ran below his best form finishing fifth. Alexander Helios has a slow-paced front-running win and a second behind Dubai World Cup winner Hit Show in two Churchill starts.
“He made his run at the top of the lane last time and didn’t have enough horse,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “This is a tough race, but the good thing is he’s run well on the track. We got Irad [Ortiz Jr.]. He can call the shots.”
Banishing can show speed or come from off the pace, as he did May 3 finishing fastest to dead-heat for second in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs over seven furlongs. Banishing was second in the Razorback, a better second in the Oaklawn Handicap, and has made seven starts, all good ones, over the last six months.
“He’s got to be one of the fittest horses in the country,” Jacobson said.
Post Time overwhelmed allowance foes May 3 at Laurel, his first start since a third in the Cigar Mile and one of a limited number of two-turn tries. In his only other race at 1 1/8 miles, the Whitney last summer, he was passed late for second by the limited Crupi. Until he proves otherwise, Post Time must be regarded as a miler at heart.
Hall of Fame was held a few lengths off a slow pace in the Alysheba, split horses in midstretch, but only got within 4 1/2 lengths of Fierceness. Trainer Steve Asmussen thinks Hall of Fame can improve with a free-running trip.
“He’s a top-class horse and it's time he proves it,” Asmussen said.
Mystik Dan is a Derby winner. It’s time he proves it.
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