Mystic Miracle Finds Right Spot in Politely

The connections of Lee Lewis’ Mystic Miracle have searched far and wide to get some black type for their 5-year-old mare over the past two years.

This summer, however, the Mark Hennig barn couldn’t find a spot for the four-time winner.

“She hasn’t run since the end of May but I wouldn’t call it a layoff,” said Hennig’s assistant trainer Rob Rader.  “We just couldn’t find a spot to run her.  She’s been training steadily the entire time.  It’s also good that she has proven that she runs well fresh.”

Mystic Miracle hasn’t run since the Gulfstream Park winter meet where she finished fourth in her two most recent stakes outings and second behind Romacaca in her 2011 debut.

“The horse she finished second to earlier this year [Romacaca] has won two stakes races so far this year here at Monmouth,” Rader said.  “Unfortunately, she just has a tendency to run fourth when we bump her up to stakes competition.”

In past years, Mystic Miracle has shown an affinity for the Monmouth Park turf course, having won two races here including a score in a strong allowance event during last year’s Elite Summer Meet.

“She certainly seems to enjoy Monmouth Park,” Rader said.  “And a mile and a sixteenth seems to suit her perfectly.  We’ve tried her at a mile and three-eighths a couple of times and it just seems at these shorter races there is more speed for her to run at.  Those longer races, they just seem to go slowly all the way around.”

If it’s speed in front of her that Mystic Miracle wants, it looks as if she has landed in the right spot. There could be a trio of speedsters out front early if In the Rough, Marquet Madness and Bella d’Oro all show their typical early foot.

“It definitely looks like there’s some speed in the race which should really help her,” Rader said.  “She’s from a really nice family, so we’d love to get her some black type.”