There's no getting around it. Mystik Dan showing up at Santa Anita Park to run in the Malibu Stakes (G1) on opening day, Dec. 26, is a big deal. A very big deal.
This happens rarely. The last time a winner of the Kentucky Derby (G1) entered the gate for the Malibu was at the end of 1997, when Silver Charm wrapped up his championship season with a second-place finish to Lord Grillo.
In the 1986 Malibu, Derby hero Ferdinand beat hometown rival Snow Chief in a battle of classic winners. Spectacular Bid set the 1980 Malibu on fire with a track record for the seven furlongs. One year earlier, Affirmed finished a baffling third in the Malibu to local runners Little Reb and Radar Ahead.
Then there was that rainy New Year's Day at the dawn of 1955, when about 30,000 of the racing faithful showed up at Santa Anita to watch Determine, the little gray from California, add the fourth running of the Malibu Stakes to his Kentucky Derby victory of the previous May.
Kenny McPeek knew about Silver Charm and was glad to be reminded of Ferdinand, who was trained by Charlie Whittingham. Not only does McPeek favor Whittingham's training philosophy and hairstyle, he also is trying to pull off the same Ferdinand feat with Mystik Dan, who ran in all three legs of the Triple Crown and has not raced since the Belmont Stakes (G1) in June.
Ferdinand followed his Derby win with a second in the Preakness Stakes (G1) and a third in the Belmont, then did not run again until the Malibu. And not for nothing, Ferdinand used the year-ending Malibu to set the stage for his 1987 Horse of the Year campaign.
Such historical concerns were far from McPeek's mind the morning of Dec. 18. The previous day, McPeek had loaded Mystik Dan onto his Magdalena Farm trailer and watched as his chief of operations and logistics, Greg Morehead, drove from the Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots stables with the Derby winner in the eight-horse rig, setting off on a California-bound trip of about 1,700 miles with assistant trainer Dermot Magner also on board.
"He laid over in Hobbs, New Mexico, at Zia Park," McPeek said. "They overnighted there, so he got a good night's rest and fed. Right now he'd be somewhere between Hobbs and Santa Anita."
Fine, but for fans of the open road, could he be more specific? McPeek needed only a few seconds to consult a tracking app on his phone.
"He's on Route 40 near Cubero, New Mexico," the trainer said. "Let's just say he's on the other side of Albuquerque. It's kind of your typical Mine That Bird trip."
McPeek was alluding to the legendary van ride taken by Mine That Bird from his New Mexico base to Louisville, Ky., in the spring of 2009 that resulted in a Kentucky Derby victory at odds of 50-1. Too bad there wasn't time for a side trip to Roswell, N.M., where Mine That Bird is enjoying retirement at the Double Eagle Ranch of owner Mark Allen.
"It's not ideal," McPeek went on. "I'm not thrilled to have to ship him this way. At the same time, if we harken back to the Seabiscuit days, they would haul them by train across the country, and horses handled it fine.
"It helps that this colt is a really easy horse to be around, not the nervous type at all," he said. "The biggest issue is dehydration. He'd been given fluids and electrolytes before he left, in the middle of the trip, and again after he arrives. We've given him plenty of room to lay down, and he's free rein, with two water buckets. They said he hasn't even blinked the whole trip."
Any other time of year, Mystik Dan might have flown to California for the Malibu with minimal hassle. But since the temporary shutdown of the Tex Sutton equine air service, racehorse traffic has been mainly dependent on FedEx, and options are limited during the holidays.
"There was a flight Dec. 9 out of Miami," McPeek said. "But then we'd have to van him to Florida from New Orleans first, and what's the point of that?"
By 11 o'clock California time that night, McPeek was breathing easier after being informed Mystik Dan was safely at Santa Anita, bedded down in the barn of Karen Headley, daughter of the late, legendary Bruce Headley. It turns out Headley was a horseman after McPeek's own heart.
"Bruce and I were good friends," McPeek said. "Whenever I took a horse out there we'd hang out at his house, and he'd fix these sandwiches just covered with onions."
The Headley home was a veritable museum of Old West history and racing artifacts, along with an orchard of fruits, vegetables, and refreshing herbs. Headley trained 2000 champion sprinter Kona Gold and a robust collection of graded stakes winners before his death in January of 2021.
"I always gravitated to guys like Bruce, kind of absorb their knowledge," McPeek said. "He was unconventional, yes, but we spoke the same language. I loved to listen as we talked about pedigrees, conformation, everything about the horse. Sometimes I think he'd be picking my brain."
After winning the Kentucky Derby by a nose over Sierra Leone, a colt who ended his year by winning the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), Mystik Dan finished second in the Preakness Stakes and was unplaced in the Belmont. That was June 8. He spent the summer at McPeek's Kentucky farm, then returned to the work tab in late October and has breezed at consistent intervals since.
If the distance Mystik Dan had to ship was one hurdle, the distance of the Malibu looms as another. The son of Goldencents has not sprinted since breaking his maiden by 7 3/4 lengths going 5 1/2 furlongs at Churchill Downs Nov. 12, 2023, in his second start for owners Lance Gasaway, Daniel Hamby III, and 4 G Racing.
"This horse is five-furlong fast if you want him to be," McPeek said. "As a 2-year-old, I made the conscious decision to teach him to go longer, learn to rate and relax. He's perfectly capable of shortening back up, and his last two workouts here have been phenomenal.
"I've been asked why come all this way for a $300,000 purse," McPeek added. "The incentive is as a stallion prospect. People want to see fast, and this horse is fast, a very typical Northern Dancer type—not real big, but agile. This is the same package."
McPeek will spend Christmas Day with his family in Kentucky, then catch a 6 a.m. flight out of Cincinnati to Los Angeles the morning of Dec. 26. The Malibu will be the eighth of 11 opening-day races, with an approximate post time of 2:30 p.m. PT. Mystik Dan's opposition will include Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner Stronghold, Pat O'Brien Stakes (G2) winner Raging Torrent, and Bentornato, runner-up last time out in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1).
Despite the many variables, McPeek thinks this is the right race at the right time for the Kentucky Derby winner to return.
"There's some horses with talent in there, but not the talent he's shown," he said. "Hopefully, class rules."
