Arkansas’ horse adds to Oaklawn’s legacy

In the late afternoon on May 4, by oral declaration, Mystik Dan became Arkansas’ horse, joining the beloved Smart Jones, who captured our hearts in 2004 by winning the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn and then the Kentucky Derby.

Even though Smarty Jones was owned by people from Philadelphia, he became our horse until Mystik Dan, a courageous steed with a strong jockey pushed through a narrow gap — about half the width of the horse — and sped down the rail and held on to win the 150th Kentucky Derby last Saturday. Voices rose in approval at Churchill Downs and even more at Oaklawn.

Mystik Dan may have been not have been born in the Natural State, but everything about him screams Arkie bred.

His owners are Lance and Bobbi Jo Gasaway of Star City; 4 G Racing’s Sharilyn and Brent Gasaway of Little Rock and Hot Springs native brothers Daniel and Scott Hamby.

They also own Mystik Dan’s mom, Ma’am, who is suddenly a hot name in the breeding industry.

Mystick Dan is a horse for his home course, training for the Kentucky Derby at Oaklawn.

If he runs as a 4-year-old, few Derby winners do these days, it will be at Oaklawn.

There were thousands of Arkansans at Churchill Downs on that fateful Saturday, including the owners and family, Arkansas football Coach Sam Pittman and his wife Jamie, and Oaklawn General Manager Wayne Smith.

Thousands attended the races at Oaklawn and NBC made it a national event. Oh, and Hot Springs native Randy Moss was part of the broadcast team.

Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs and the brains behind the world’s shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade, is now part of the Mystik Dan Parade that started in Kentucky, moved to Arkansas and is back in Kentucky.

The parade continued Saturday to Baltimore for the Preakness, next week’s second leg of the Triple Crown.

On Friday there was a stop in Little Rock at Arkansas Graphics to get the first look of Mystik Dan’s trading cards.

Mystik Dan’s run for the roses further cemented Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort as one of the best tracks in America. The day before his victory, Thorpedo Anna, who won Oaklawn’s Fantasy Stakes, won the Kentucky Oaks, America’s top race for 3-year-old fillies.

Oaklawn’s rise to the top began just four years after Instant Racing was added and the purses began to rise. Today, it rivals any track in America and tops the majority.

In the first 130 runnings, only three horses from Oaklawn won the Kentucky Derby: Sunny’s Halo in 1983, Lil E. Tee in 1992 and Grindstone in 1996.

In the past 20 years, there have been five find the winner’s circle on the first Saturday in May. In that same period, five more ran second and eight ran third. In 2015 American Pharoah won the Triple Crown. In those two decades, only five times did Oaklawn not have a first, second or third.

During that period eight won the Preakness, five placed and three ran third. In the Belmont five Oaklawn horses won, six ran second with one third.

All of those have special places in Oaklawn history, but Mystik Dan became the first locally-owned winner since Lil E. Tee, and like his owner, Cal Partee, they are genuinely nice people.

Mystik Dan becomes only the fourth horse from Oaklawn to have his own trading card, joining Smarty Jones, American Pharoah and Zenyatta, perhaps the great filly of all time.

The Gasaways and the Hambys own Arkansas’ horse and his mama.

In 2004 Smarty Jones kicked it off and needed only Belmont to win the Triple Crown.