Mystic Guide in a holding pattern

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Mystic Guide, winner of the 2021 Dubai World Cup but unraced since last July, continues to gallop steadily at Keeneland as his connections assess the next step in his career.

Bred and owned by Godolphin and trained by Michael Stidham, Mystic Guide came out of his second-place finish behind Max Player in the Suburban last summer with a bone chip that required surgical removal. He was training this winter for a comeback, with hopes of returning to Dubai, when Stidham called a halt, unhappy with the way Mystic Guide was going. The horse, by Ghostzapper, was sent to Kentucky for full medical evaluation and given approval to resume light training. Nothing has kept Mystic Guide from steadily galloping but neither has he breezed, the next step toward a potential race.

“He’s galloping and he’s doing great, but that’s all right now. He has not breezed, so we know no more than we did,” Stidham said.

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Trainer and owner have another older dirt-route horse in the 4-year-old Proxy who has gotten back into a racing pattern over the last couple months. Proxy won a Feb. 25 Fair Grounds allowance race by nearly four lengths and came back to finish an encouraging second behind vastly talented Olympiad in the March 26 New Orleans Classic. Proxy’s Beyer Speed Figure there, 99, was a career best.

“We’re looking at the Ben Ali here at Keeneland,” Stidham said, referring to the $300,000, 1 1/8-mile contest on April 23.