McPeek's winter stable keeping warm

Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan returned from a half-year layoff with a well-beaten sixth Dec. 26 in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes, obviously a disappointing showing for the colt’s trainer, Kenny McPeek. McPeek the following day posted song lyrics from the ’90s hit “Tubthumping” that included the lines, “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” which he proceeded to do in the days since Mystik Dan’s comeback.

Since Dec. 27, McPeek’s stable, racing in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida, has posted six winners, and the Fair Grounds division, overseen by assistant trainer Greg Geier, went 4 for 5. The string won three maiden races this past weekend, including a 2-year-old filly sprint with first-time starter In Awe of Juju, who earned a 72 Beyer Speed Figure getting up by three-quarters of a length under Colby Hernandez.

While Colby’s brother Brian rides first call for McPeek and piloted the other three Fair Grounds winners, Colby had quite the Fair Grounds week with five victories from seven mounts, doubling the win total from his first 42 rides this meet. Among his winners was Smoken Wicked, who dominated the colts and geldings division of the Louisiana Futurity in a fast time, a potential player in one-turn 3-year-old open stakes this winter and spring.

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McPeek has one runner on Thursday’s nine-race Fair Grounds card, Gold Thief, entered in race 8, a Louisiana-bred maiden turf route. Fair Grounds moved all its grass races to dirt during the Dec. 26-29 racing week, and with heavy rain forecast Tuesday night, grass racing Thursday is no sure thing. Gold Thief has made his four starts on dirt, to no great effect, and with Big Brown as his dam’s sire, a shift to grass might boost his chances.

Brian Hernandez Jr. rides Gold Thief, while Dallas Stewart, Smoken Wicked’s trainer, named Edgar Morales to ride Ervadean in the featured fifth race, a six-furlong dirt sprint restricted to fillies and mares and open to $50,000 claimers. Morales had his own spotlight moment over the weekend when he guided Lagynos to victory in the Woodchopper, which had Mc Vay as a favorite after the race was moved from turf to dirt.

Mc Vay finished a flat seventh making his first start since owner C R K Stable moved the colt out of California and into the barn of trainer Cherie DeVaux. Skinner, the most prominent Californian from C R K that went to DeVaux, has not posted a timed workout since breezing at Santa Anita, but the C R K-owned Justique makes her DeVaux debut in the Thursday feature, likely as the favorite under leading rider Jose Ortiz.

Justique has made her last seven starts in turf routes, but to look at her 2-year-old dirt sprint form – a debut win over 5 1/2 furlongs and a score in the seven-furlong Desi Arnaz – a change in distance and surface could suit the 4-year-old filly.

And after riding just seven races all last week, Colby Hernandez has four mounts Thursday. Maybe his New Orleans momentum, and McPeek’s, carry over to 2025.

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