Mystik Dan puts Derby hangover behind him, wins Blame Stakes

Louisville, Ky.

Whether it was because he was due or he ran his race or he returned to a track he has been known to love, Mystik Dan got back in the winner’s circle Saturday for the first time since he won Kentucky Derby 2024. It seemed like old times.

“I was high-fiving at the eighth pole,” trainer Kenny McPeek said after he watched Mystik Dan draw away to a 1 1/4-length victory in the Grade 3, $275,000 Blame Stakes, a two-turn, 1 1/8-mile race for older horses.

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It marked the first time since 2020 that a horse recognized at the time as a Kentucky Derby victor won any race afterward. It also was the first such time it happened for an older horse since California Chrome did it nine years ago.

“I certainly think he’s bigger and stronger than he was as a 3-year-old, which he should be,” McPeek said.

“He broke sharp, and he was kind of back to his old self,” winning jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. said. “When he’s doing really well like he was today, he makes my job fun, because he’s able to just sit in that pocket, and you’re able to just kind of read the race as it’s going along. You know that when you call on him, he’s going to bust through and give you a nice run, which he did today.”

Hernandez had Mystik Dan (3-1) stalking fourth in the field of seven, taking a ground-saving trip along the rail. Alexander Helios (11-1) set the early pace with fractions of 22.93 and 46.82 seconds on the fast main track. Antiquarian (9-1) moved from second into the lead through three-quarters of a mile in 1:11.14.

Wheeling into the stretch, Antiquarian blew the turn, bearing out to the five path, forcing Hall of Fame (9-2) and Banishing (5-2) to go even wider. Unlike last year’s Derby, where Hernandez had to squeeze through a gap, it was like he was flying first class with a clear path to cut the corner into the stretch.

Jockey John Velázquez said Antiquarian appeared to get distracted by something coming out of the turn.

“(Hall of Fame) got to him,” Velázquez said. “He ducked away from him. It got a little tight, and I got out of there after that. ... He saw something. I think it was the ambulance at the quarter pole. He’d seen a little too much today.”

Meanwhile, Mystik Dan was focused on his target. He carried a 1 1/2-length lead through a mile in 1:35.80. Betting favorite Post Time (2-1) rallied from last and closed the gap to 1 1/4 lengths only to be caught for second by Antiquarian with only a head separating them. Mystik Dan finished in hand with a time of 1:48.45.

Mystik Dan paid $8.12, $5.20 and $3.16; Antiquarian $9.34 and $5.04; and Post Time $2.94. Hall of Fame, Banishing, Tennessee Lamb (25-1) and Alexander Helios completed the finish in that order. Most Wanted, Best Actor and Katonah were scratched.

Never worried about any permanence to the Derby hangover, McPeek admitted Mystik Dan had some stumbling blocks put before him since his Derby triumph nearly 13 months ago. On second thought, McPeek would not have gone to the Preakness despite a second-place result there, and an eighth-place disappointment in the Belmont Stakes triggered a six-month break.

“We really needed to stepladder this horse,” McPeek said. “The Oaklawn race (a second-place finish May 3 in the Lake Ouachita Stakes) was a good step that led us into this race. We needed to ease him up. In hindsight I wished I hadn’t run him (in the Preakness). Those two races after we came out of the Triple Crown were misfires.”

McPeek was talking about a distant sixth in the seven-furlong Malibu (G1) on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita and an even more distant ninth in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) on Jan. 25 at Gulfstream Park.

“The Malibu looked like it was enticing,” McPeek said. “It was a short field, 3-year-olds, OK? We really wanted to show him off a little, sprinting. It was a disaster. It was a long trip. It didn’t go right. Of course, hindsight is 20-20. But once we got out of the Pegasus, another one I wish I could kind of redo, we gave him time.”

The second half of the year remains to be mapped for Mystik Dan, a 4-year-old Goldencents colt owned by Lance Gasaway, 4 G Racing, Daniel Hamby and Valley View Farm. But McPeek said a Grade 1 date over the same course and distance June 28 at Churchill Downs definitely is on the agenda for the first Derby winner since Silver Charm 27 years ago to be victorious again at Churchill Downs.

“I think the Stephen Foster is a very logical next step,” McPeek said. “Yeah, for sure. Than after that, let’s see.”