Mystik Dan's Southwest Stakes triumph caps big day for McPeek, Hernandez

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – That’s a whole lot of points.

Mystik Dan won the Grade 3, $800,000 Southwest Stakes with authority Saturday at Oaklawn Park and stablemate Band of Gold upset the $250,000 Martha Washington at 24-1 to give trainer Kenny McPeek and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. a sweep of the card's 3-year-old points races.

“Really good day,” McPeek said.

Mystik Dan picked up 20 points for the Kentucky Derby and sits third on the current leaderboard administered by Churchill Downs, while stablemate Common Defense picked up 2 for his fifth-place finish in the Southwest.

Band of Gold earned 20 points for the Kentucky Oaks for her win and she now sits fourth on the leaderboard.

Mystik Dan ($24.80) shuttled home by eight lengths in the Southwest, which was run on a track upgraded to muddy one race ahead of the feature. He was content to settle just behind the leaders along the rail, as Otto the Conqueror set fractions of 23.56 seconds for the opening quarter, 47.95 for the half-mile and 1:13.23 for six furlongs while pressured by favorite Carbone and Wynstock. Mystik Dan moved through to the lead into the stretch, maintaining his rail position and going on to cover 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.67.

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“He’s really a nice horse to be around – the sky’s the limit,” McPeek said.

McPeek said Mystik Dan showed talent early on, when he won his maiden in a sprint at Churchill Downs by more than seven lengths. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 96 in the 5 1/2-furlong race run Nov. 12.

“He showed me he was really, really fast when he broke his maiden,” McPeek said. “We knew we had a really nice horse, but we needed to stretch him out. At that point, he needed to learn how to run longer for him to go to another level. He needed to figure out a different pace of a race. He’s always been a very kind horse to be around.”

McPeek moved Mystik Dan to a mile for a first-level allowance and the horse ran fifth and was found to have “kicked up a lung infection,” he said. From there, he was a close fifth in his two-turn debut in the Smarty Jones last month at Oaklawn. McPeek then moved the horse to Fair Grounds right before a winter blast shut Oaklawn's track down for training for 10 days starting Jan. 14.

“Maybe he was a little short [in the Smarty Jones],” McPeek said, “but the best thing we did was we shipped him to Fair Grounds to get out of the cold, got out of here right before the ice hit, and were able to train him forward down there. He did everything down there, which was needed to have him ready for today.”

McPeek said his initial thought out of the Southwest is to skip the next race in the series, the Rebel, with Mystik Dan and await the Grade 1, $1.5 million Arkansas Derby on March 30.

He said Common Defense could come back in the Rebel, which is Feb. 24.

Just Steel finished second in the Southwest, a neck in front of third-place finisher Liberal Arts. It was another nine lengths to fourth-place finisher Awesome Road, with those horses earning points on a scale of 10-6-4-2.

Mystik Dan is a son of Goldencents who has now won 2 of 5 starts for earnings of $510,110. He races for Lance Gasaway, 4G Racing and Daniel Hamby 3d.

Band of Gold ($50.60) was content to race along the rail as Tapit Jenallie set pressured fractions of 23.67 for the opening quarter, 47.71 for the half-mile and 1:12.53 for six furlongs. Hernandez angled Band of Gold off the rail on the final turn, guided her to the outside of rivals into the stretch, and she went on to a 2 3/4-length win over favorite Denim and Pearls, covering the 1 1/16 miles on track rated sloppy in 1:45.16.

“She’s a filly that wanted more ground,” McPeek said. “And Brian did a wonderful job.

“She’s definitely moving forward. I looked at the [race] as a whole and it looked like a lot of them wanted to sprint. I knew my filly wanted farther.”

Band of Gold is a daughter of Preservationist who races for Dixiana Farms. She is now 2 for 3 for earnings of $206,000.

Neom Beach finished third, while Tapit Jenallie was fourth and Promisemeanempire was fifth. The second- through fifth-place finishers also earned points, on a scale of 10-6-4-2.

McPeek said Saturday that plans going forward with Band of Gold are to be determined.

*** Oaklawn handled $13.8 million from all sources on a 12-race card that started at 11:30 a.m. Central. The estimated attendance was 25,500, according to track officials. Racing resumes Sunday.

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