Mystik Dan gallops for first time since Wednesday evening arrival

ARCADIA, Calif. - Mystik Dan, winner of the Kentucky Derby in May, had his first trip around Santa Anita on Friday morning, galloping 1 1/4 miles in advance of his West Coast debut in Thursday’s Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds.

Earlier this week, Mystik Dan was vanned from New Orleans to Southern California, with an overnight stopover in New Mexico. Mystik Dan arrived at Santa Anita late Wednesday evening.

“We gave him the day off on Thursday,” trainer Kenny McPeek said.

Mystik Dan handled the journey without incident.

“It was no problem,” McPeek said from his base at Fair Grounds in New Orleans. “Remember, Seabiscuit used to travel on the train.”

This weekend, Mystik Dan will have daily gallops and will have a rapid run through the stretch on Sunday.

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“We’ll let him run down the lane on Sunday, an old school blowout for a quarter-mile,” McPeek said. “We’ll let him get a feel of the track.”

Mystik Dan is part of a field of eight in the $300,000 Malibu at seven furlongs, one of six graded stakes on a bumper 11-race program that launches the track’s winter-spring meeting.

Mystik Dan’s rivals in the Malibu include Bentornato, who was second at 28-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 2; Raging Torrent, who won the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs at Del Mar in August but was seventh in the BC Sprint; and Stronghold and Imagination, who were first and second in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in April.

The Malibu will be Mystik Dan’s first start since an eighth-place finish in a field of 10 in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on June 8.

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