Mystik Bayou an improbable tale coming into Street Sense
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During the 2023 breeding season, a 2-year-old colt named Mystik Dan was months from making his debut, and even farther away from winning the Kentucky Derby. He was the first horse produced by Ma’am, a daughter of the minor sire Colonel John who had failed to meet a $7,500 reserve at a yearling sale.
Ma’am’s greatest accomplishment on the racetrack was winning a first-level allowance. Nothing suggested she was a mare of note, and so in 2023 she was bred to Wells Bayou and produced a horse foaled in Oaklahoma but raised at the Kentucky farm of trainer Kenny McPeek.
Wells Bayou won the Louisiana Derby but not much else. McPeek said Wells Bayou bred 18 mares during his lone season at stud in 2023. The horse proved infertile – mostly. He got one mare in foal, Ma’am. Her son Mystik Bayou might turn out to be the only horse ever sired by Wells Bayou.
Crazy story – and crazier still Mystik Bayou can really run.
He finished third in U. S. S. Valor’s tour-de-force Saratoga maiden, and on Oct. 3, cleared the maiden ranks with an eye-catching 4 1/4-length Belmont maiden win over 1 1/16 miles. Mystik Bayou earned an 88 Beyer Speed Figure and is the 9-5 morning-line favorite in the Grade 3, $200,000 Street Sense on Sunday.
“He’s apples and oranges to Mystik Dan,” McPeek said. “Mystik Dan was a smaller, quicker type. This horse has got a lot of leg. He’s athletic. He just overpowered that group last time.”
The Street Sense drew eight entrants. Ritzy Rags and Very Gifted look like impossible longshots, Never a Doubt like a standard longshot, but any of the other five – Blessed Flyer, Card Man, Jas, Staunch, and, of course, Mystik Bayou – can win.
Mystik Bayou went off at a relatively robust 6-1 in his maiden win because there were other talented horses in that field. Favored Tap Our Way, who’d beaten him at Saratoga, made a run at Mystik Bayou in upper stretch, but Mystik Bayou turned him away and galloped out strongly past the wire. Jose Ortiz picks up the mount.
Chad Brown trains Tap Our Way and sends Card Man for the Street Sense. Card Man debuted in a Saratoga sprint and gamely chased home front-running winner Q B Rocket, one of the sharper Saratoga maidens this summer. Stretched to a one-turn mile at Belmont, Card Man proved much the best facing nine rivals, stalking the pace while in hand and easily taking command of the race when Flavien Prat asked for a little more run. Prat rode him in both New York starts and has a call Sunday.
Blessed Flyer has a story behind him, too. He was being led from the stables over to the paddock for the Iroquois Stakes last month just as the starting gate was being positioned in the chute where the one-turn mile Iroquois would begin.
“Any other horse it wouldn’t have bothered, but he’s kind of easy to tip over the edge,” trainer Mike Tomlinson said. “He got excited and reared up, got his foot over the lead shank and got loose. He was no worse for wear.”
This, though, was the final straw: Blessed Flyer soon was gelded.
Blessed Flyer won his April debut at Keeneland and subsequently was privately purchased, capturing the June 28 Bashford Manor for his new connections, and earning a high 89 Beyer. Blessed Flyer, a son of Dialed In, has raced over 4 1/2 and six furlongs, but Tomlinson said everything he sees in the morning suggests Blessed Flyer will run long.
“But I’ve had some horses that lied to me, too,” he said.
Staunch rallied stoutly for third debuting in an Ellis Park sprint and won over a more suitable mile trip second out at Churchill.
“He took all the kickback and came through that and looks like he’ll go the two turns, no problem,” trainer Brendan Walsh said.
Jas has run turf races that would make him competitive on dirt and has the same profile for trainer Steve Asmussen as Tiztastic, second in the 2024 Street Sense.
That was the year Mystik Dan won the Kentucky Derby. Mystik Bayou, the only horse sired by Wells Bayou, might be on the same path.
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