Zipse: This could be the year for McPeek's 1st Ky. Derby win

A young Kenny McPeek watched his first big horse, Tejano Run, split a pair of highly regarded runners from the powerhouse barn of D. Wayne Lukas to finish second in the 1995 Kentucky Derby. At the time, the 32-year-old Arkansas native must have thought his day would come on the first Saturday in May.

It still could happen for McPeek, but 29 years later that runner-up finish by Tejano Run remains the closest he has come to smelling the roses.

Champions Thunder Gulch and Timber Country went on to sweep all three legs of the Triple Crown for Lukas, and McPeek’s charge went on to have a fine career as a six-time stakes winner. Tejano Run is one of a long list of graded-stakes winners for the longtime Kentucky resident.

His biggest wins along the way include the Belmont Stakes with Sarava, the Grade 1 Travers Stakes with Golden Ticket and the Preakness Stakes with Swiss Skydiver. But still no Kentucky Derby.

Perhaps 2024 will be the year for McPeek, who has real talent this season among his sophomore males. Real Men Violin will make his anticipated 3-year-old debut on Saturday, Feb. 17, in the Risen Star (G2) at Fair Grounds.

The son of Mendelssohn finished his juvenile season strongly and looks like a legitimate candidate, but he will need to sprout wings in his seasonal debut to outdo what we saw from stablemate Mystik Dan in Saturday's $800,000 Southwest (G3) at Oaklawn Park.

Having shown talent without fully breaking through in his first four starts, Mystic Dan was respected at 11-1 in a deep field in the Southwest. But the son of Goldencents was flying under the radar of most after a deceptively good fifth-place finish in last month’s Smarty Jones at Oaklawn.

As one of two in the field trained by McPeek, Mystik Dan turned the muddy racing strip in Hot Springs, Ark., into his own personal playpen.

Under a perfect ride by Brian J. Hernandez Jr. the bay colt romped home an eight-length winner. In so doing, Mystik Dan took a big step toward being in this year’s Kentucky Derby starting gate.

In a bit of irony stemming from the 1995 running of the Kentucky Derby, Mystic Dan was sprinting away from a Lukas-trained runner, Just Steel, down the Oaklawn Park stretch on Saturday.

Owned by his breeders Lance Gasaway, 4 G Racing and Daniel Hamby III, Mystik Dan surprised a bit with his performance, but he did not come from nowhere.

In his second career start, he turned in a big figure when running away from a maiden field at Churchill Downs.

Last time out, in his first try around two turns, he broke out at the start and bumped soundly the horse to his outside. He chased the pace from that beginning and was game before weakening in the late stages. Still, he was beaten by only 3 1/2 lengths.

McPeek trained him to relax early in the interim and on Saturday, reunited with Hernandez, the plan came to impressive fruition.

Distance questions, as well as the ability to get it done on a fast track, will persist, but his Southwest performance announces Mystik Dan as a horse of quality and who that is improving at the right time. The Arkansas Derby (G1) on March 20 will be next.

Wins can come in bunches for good barns, so it will be interesting to see what Real Men Violin can do against what appears to be a loaded edition of the Risen Star in a few weeks in New Orleans.

For now, it’s nice to see McPeek back on the Kentucky Derby trail in earnest. It seems like a lifetime ago when Tejano Run split horses to finish second behind Thunder Gulch under the twin spires at Churchill Downs.

Doing one better this year, or another, would be a welcome reward for the excellent trainer.