Mystic Guide pointing for a summer campaign
NEW ORLEANS – It has been a year since Mystic Guide won the Dubai World Cup, and if it seems like it’s been a year since you last saw him, you wouldn’t be far wrong. Mystic Guide’s lone race since then was a second-place finish in the Grade 2 Suburban at Belmont Park July 3. He was in training here at Fair Grounds earlier this meet, but trainer Mike Stidham was dissatisfied with the way he was going after a pair of workouts, and sent him to Kentucky for a thorough evaluation by noted veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage.
Bramlage said Mystic Guide just needed a little more time. Done. Now, Stidham said Friday, Mystic Guide is back in training, at his barn at Keeneland, where Stidham will be heading next, eventually en route to Fair Hill, after the meet ends here Sunday.
“He’s back galloping,” said Stidham, who said the next step will be to get Mystic Guide into a regular work pattern that leads to a return to racing.
“We’re eyeing a summer campaign that hopefully leads to the Breeders’ Cup,” Stidham said.
This year’s Breeders’ Cup, conveniently, is at Keeneland.
The World Cup win was a career topper for Stidham, 64, who has been training for more than 40 years. His assistant is his partner, Hilary Pridham.
“Hillary and I had never been there, so to go there and then actually win the thing, it was unbelievable,” Stidham said of winning the $12 million race in Dubai. “I remember winning an allowance race at Hollywood Park in 1980 for $40,000 and thinking how great that was.”
Mystic Guide, 5, is a Godolphin homebred by Ghostzapper out of the five-time Grade 1-winning mare Music Note, by A.P. Indy. He has won four times in nine starts, his other stakes wins the Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga at 3 and the Grade 3 Razorback at Oaklawn at 4.
◗ Fair Grounds’s season closes Sunday with a 13-race card, on the heels of the 12-race Louisiana Derby card, with three $75,000 stakes for Louisiana-breds the co-features. Trainer Bret Calhoun has a pair in the last of the three, the Star Guitar for older horses, with Who Took the Money, 3 for 3 on the Fair Grounds main track and 6 for 9 overall, the likely favorite.