Former Kentucky Derby winner highlights big Colonial Downs weekend slate

 Somebody up there likes Colonial Downs.

The last-minute, supplemental addition of 2024 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan to Saturday’s Arlington Million (Gr. 1) created a buzz clearly lacking to that point.

In other words, it was godsend for the $1 million feature on the “Biggest Day in Horse Racing” at the New Kent County track. Also scheduled are the $500,000 Gr. II Secretariat and Beverly D, among six races in all with purses of $100,000 and more.

Post time for the first of 12 Thoroughbred races is noon. General admission is $5, with a few reserved locations still available. Frank Hopf, Colonial’s senior director of racing operations, said he expects a crowd of “6,500 to 7,000” for the third annual Festival of Racing.

This will be Mystic Dan’s first start on grass after winning four of 14 outings on dirt, including last year’s “Run for the Roses,” where the 18/1 longshot nipped Sierra Leone and Forever Young in a three-horse photo finish.

Trainer Kenny McPeek sounded somewhat optimistic yesterday about his 4 year old’s chances here.

“I always felt he would be a horse that would relish the grass,” McPeek said from Saratoga, N.Y., where late last week he put Mystic Dan on a 5 1/2-furlong test on Saratoga Race Track’s California training course … “and I liked the way he did it.”

The bay colt covered the distance in 1:02.17. Now, the only question was: Where would he make his grass debut? Originally, McPeek mentioned a couple of races next month in Kentucky.  He’s based at Churchill Downs, which owns Colonial, after all, and McPeek apparently was persuaded to change his mind.

“It looked like this race … distance-wise and timing-wise … and certainly another Grade I on his resume would be unique. So we decided to enter,” said McPeek, who barely beat last Saturday morning’s draw.

“Was I surprised?” Hopf said. “To a degree.”

“It was a bit of calling at audible at the line of scrimmage,” McPeek said, “But, sometimes, you have to do it in this business.”

There also was reason to believe Colonial Downs helped McPeek’s decision by waving the supplemental (late entry) fee of $10,000. Even when you’re running for a winner’s share of $600,000 every little bit helps.

“It’s not about that,” McPeek said. “This IS a good spot for him. We know he can go a mile and a quarter. He did that in the Derby. And we know where we fit with the older horses on dirt. Maybe this would be bit of a different angle for him.”

Mystic Dan is the fourth choice in an eight-horse field with a morning line of 9/2, with regular jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. up. The favorite at 8/5 is last year’s runnerup Integration, ridden by John Velasquez.

For the most part, it’s “a light field,” according to one national handicapper, who also noted Mystic Dan is the only competitor to win a Grade I race “and a majority of his rivals are winless this year.”

Still, McPeek, who doesn’t hesitate (cliché alert) to go out on a limb and predict success for one of his own, remains cautious. Ask him, and he’ll tell you they will retire Mystic Dan and put him out to stud “probably at the end of the year … but there’s always the off-chance he’ll run some next year. It’s too early to say.”

Chances are, however, he has seen the end of his dirt career. That apparently was all but settled when Mystic Dan followed up his dramatic Derby win with an eighth-place in the Belmont at Saratoga … and Hernandez “told me he didn’t think [the horse] handled the track very well,” McPeek said. “That led us in another direction.”

Since the 2024 Belmont, in his last five races on dirt, Mystic Dan finished (in order) 6th, 9th, 2nd, first and 4th. He won the 2025 Gr. III Blame Stakes at Churchill Downs, beating what everyone agreed was inferior competition.

McPeek won’t say if it’s possible this will be Mystic Dan’s final run.

“I’m not planning anything beyond this race,” the trainer said. “Say he runs huge … he’s a next-level turf horse … we wouldn’t turn our nose up at running in the Breeder’s Cup Turf mile or something to that extent.

“We’re going to take this one step at a time. Nothing is set in stone.”