Stidham's patience pays off as Mystic Guide rolls in Dubai World Cup

Michael Stidham has been training horses since 1979. There were lean years, times he wondered if he might have to find another occupation, but Stidham persevered, prospered, and Saturday, as he stepped onto the brightest stage he ever has occupied with his blossoming 4-year-old Mystic Guide, Stidham’s career hit an apex.

Getting a perfect trip under Luis Saez, Mystic Guide strode to the lead in upper stretch, drifted slightly, but finished with plenty of zest, crossing the wire 3 3/4 lengths best in the Group 1, $12 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse.

Stidham, key assistant Hilary Pridham, and the American team behind Godolphin, Mystic Guide’s owner and breeder, waited patiently through the 4-year-old colt’s 3-year-old season, resisting the chance to throw him into the very highest-level races before Mystic Guide, a late-developer, was fully prepared. Mystic Guide won the Jim Dandy at Saratoga and came close facing older horses in the Grade 1 Jockey Club, his last start at 3.

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A minor December illness delayed Mystic Guide’s 2021 campaign, which might otherwise have begun in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational in January, and when Mystic Guide won the Feb. 27 Razorback Handicap by six lengths, earning a career-best 108 Beyer Speed Figure, it was clear he’d made a leap.

“We always thought he was maybe one step behind where he needed to be to run in the Preakness or the Derby, races like that, so we gave him time,” Stidham said.

The wait wound up being 15 minutes longer than expected. As the 14 horses assembled for the post parade, Great Scot acted up and dumped jockey Frankie Dettori, breaking free and running wildly, riderless, around the Meydan dirt track. He was scratched, and the horses were assembled at the starting gate with all but two loaded when Military Law unseated his rider and somehow squeezed under the stall-gate doors, running off - another scratch. The horses were backed out of the gate while he was caught, with further delay ensuing.

“He was getting pretty antsy on the walk over, and then in the different holding areas he was getting a little tough, giving us a hard time. It got a little worse in the parade ring, then you had multiple loose horses, loading, unloading. He was with the pony and starting to kick out. I was concerned. I really was,” Stidham said.

Concern gave way to encouragement when Mystic Guide left the gate fairly cleanly and took up a stalking position, racing third as Hypothetical took the lead, tracked from second by Capezzano. Down the backstretch they went, positions unchanged, Mystic Guide finding a nice rhythm, racing in the clear.

“That was the plan, our plan, to break and get that position,” Saez said.

Capezzano couldn’t keep up and Saez let Mystic Guide race up to get on even terms with Thegreatcollection going into the far turn. Coming out of it, it was all Mystic Guide. This World Cup, the 25th, looked over at the 400-meter mark – and it was. Mystic Guide drifted slightly but continued solidly, steadily, and victoriously to the finish.

Mystic Guide, who returned $5.40 in American pools, ran the 2,000 meters, about 1 1/4 miles, in 2:01.61, second-fastest World Cup run over the Meydan dirt track. Japan-based Chuwa Wizard, who raced inside from fourth much of the trip, rebounded from a poor Saudi Cup performance to claim second, 1 1/4 lengths in front of another Godolphin runner, France-based Magny Cours, who was making his dirt debut Saturday. Then came Hypothetical, Salute the Soldier, Jesus’ Team, Thegreatcollection, Ajuste Fiscal, Gifts of Gold, Sleepy Eyes Todd, Title Ready, and Capezzano.

Mystic Guide is by Ghostzapper out of Music Note, by A. P. Indy, and won for the fourth time in just eight starts. Music Note was a five-time Grade 1 winner and now she has produced a horse with a win at the highest level and a chance to be the leader of the worldwide older-horse dirt-route division. “I think the sky’s the limit with him,” Stidham said.

Mystic Guide traveled from his Fair Grounds base and arrived in Dubai 10 days before the World Cup.

“Everything that goes on here is polar opposite of what we do in America, and I was concerned about that,” Stidham said. The day after Mystic Guide was vanned from the international quarantine facility Tuesday night to school in the Meydan paddock, Stidham called off a regular training session Wednesday morning, declining the nearly two-mile walk from the quarantine barn to the Meydan main track. “Everyone asked, ‘Why is he walking?’ Well, I don’t want him to be flat on race night. It worked out. Horses have to be able to handle all this. It’s not easy.”

This was Stidham’s first starter outside North America. It came with the favorite in the world’s second-richest race. In a post-race interview, Stidham said he was feeling “40 years of emotion right now.”

“I really felt like it was finally my turn to step up to the big time. I really wanted it to happen,” he said.

It did happen, and the veteran horseman had a guide under those bright lights – a Mystic Guide.