Mystic Lancelot makes first start for Alter following $75,000 claim

Mystic Lancelot has had some close calls in the first-level allowance ranks this meet at Gulfstream Park and will be looking to clear the condition Saturday.

He goes in the ninth, a one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds that highlights a 12-race program alongside a first-level allowance sprint for 3-year-old fillies. Both races carry an optional claiming price of $75,000.

Happy Alter claimed Mystic Lancelot for that price in his last start out of a second-place finish over a mile and an eighth on turf May 30 at Gulfstream. The longtime owner and trainer has been working to upgrade his stable after the 2019 retirement of multiple Grade 2 winner Curlin’s Approval.

“I wanted to try to better my stock,” he said. “I stay at Gulfstream Park year-round and so I claimed a few different ones, hoping I can work with them and they can become some stars of our stable.”

Mystic Lancelot, who is part of a field of eight, caught Alter’s attention for a couple of reasons.

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“After he broke his maiden, he went right into a Grade 1 and then three or four other stakes,” he said. “And I like the breeding on him. Into Mischief is one of the top sires in the country. He’s a true son of his sire – same coloring, same look. He looks a lot like him.”

Alter knows first hand, as Curlin’s Approval was recently bred to Into Mischief after producing her first foal, a filly by Tapit. Alter owns Curlin’s Approval and her foals in partnership with John Malone.

As for Mystic Lancelot, he’s run in this condition four times this meet and twice has been second, while also finishing third and fourth. The efforts have come at varying distances.

“He has had some nice races going longer than the mile, but this is what was in the book and I think he can handle the mile, as well,” Alter said. “And if it came off the turf, I’m not afraid to run him on the dirt. He worked really nice on the dirt for me.”

The move came June 15, when Mystic Lancelot went five furlongs in 59.80 seconds. The forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms, according to the Weather Channel.

Mystic Lancelot will start from post 5 under Emisael Jaramillo.

“A lot always depends on the break out of the gate,” Alter said, “but I think he’ll either make the pace or be close to the pace. Let’s see how things work out.”

The chief rivals include Cadet Connelly. He enters off a third-place finish at this level May 29 at Tampa. The start was his first on Lasix.

Riggins, a maiden winner over the Gulfstream turf on May 9, is a half-brother to both millionaire Papa Clem and multiple Grade 1 winner Ce Ce.