Both McPeek winners may run again at track

The Southwest Stakes winner may be seen again, trainer Ken McPeek said, in the March 30 Arkansas Derby, Oaklawn’s oldest and richest race.

McPeek trained both Mystik Dan, eight-length winner of the $800,000 Grade 3 Southwest, and Band of Gold, a substitute starter in the $150,000 Martha Washington Saturday before an estimated crowd of 25,500. The latter horse may reappear as early as Feb. 24 in the Grade 3 Honeybee at the track, the trainer said.

With a stakes double for jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., the McPeek pair each gained 20 qualifying points for Grade 1 races in May at Churchill Downs. McPeek has won neither the Kentucky Oaks nor Kentucky Derby, totaling four seconds in races that each has its 150th running next.

Mystik Dan smartly rode the rail to a runaway triumph for Arkansas-based connections including Lance and Sharilyn Gasaway and cousin Brent Gasaway. Along with Daniel Hamby III, they bred the colt produced by Ma’am, a McPeek-trained daughter of Colonel John. Sire Goldencents twice won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

Mystik Dan justified McPeek’s faith in the colt after running fifth in the $300,000 Smarty Jones Jan. 1, Oaklawn’s first of four Derby points races. The trainer also guessed right in shipping the colt to Fair Grounds in advance of a winter storm that cost local horsemen 11 training days (Jan. 13-23). With two works in New Orleans, Mystik Dan enjoyed a recency edge over some in the 11-horse Southwest.

“We had a good feeling before the race,” said Lance Gasaway. “He wasn’t ready for the … Smarty Jones. He needed the race, so we felt pretty confident coming into the race. He (McPeek) can do it.”

McPeek likes the Southwest winner’s dam and what he sees in her first foal to make the races.

“The cool thing about this horse (Mystik Dan) is that I bought his mother for Lance and the group, and she had a good career and then we foaled him at the farm in Lexington,” said McPeek, refer

ring to his Magdalena Farm in Kentucky. “I recommended the mating. He needed some speed and, boy, he’s fast. It’s exciting.”

McPeek surprised with Band of Gold ($50.60), whom he entered after a local allowance race didn’t fill and stablemate Ice Cold suffered a career-ending leg injury last month, having won the $200,000 Year’s End Dec. 31 at Oaklawn.

“We really felt like going into the race, we were going to have the favorite with her,” McPeek said, referring to the Martha Washington. “I shipped Band of Gold up here to run in an allowance race and it didn’t go. We were sitting here with a filly ready to run and then Ice Cold opted out. I said, ‘It only makes sense if you’ve got another good one sitting there, so let’s go.’ We’ve got a deep bench.”

The Grade 3 Honeybee, like the Martha Washington and G3 $750,000 Fantasy March 30, is 1 1/16 miles. Wet Paint swept the three races last year; stablemate Denim and Pearls, also trained by Brad Cox, ran second Saturday to Band of Gold, whose breeder, the late Brereton C. Jones, a Kentucky politician, operated Airdrie Farm in the Bluegrass State.

“We’ve got that same race coming back in three weeks,” McPeek said. “She may very well go in the Honeybee.”

* Hall of Fame trainer Wayne Lukas said Just Steel, second in the Smarty Jones and Southwest, is pointing to the Grade 2 $1.25 million Rebel Feb. 24. A 50-point bonus for the winner, the Rebel sets the stage for the Grade 1 $1.5 million Arkansas Derby, a 100-point prep. Lukas won the Arkansas Derby with the filly Althea in 1994 and future Preakness winner Tank’s Prospect in 1995.

Just Steel, by Triple Crown winner Justify, has 15 points and ranks ninth on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard compiled by Churchill Downs.

Liberal Arts, a half-length behind Just Steel but nine lengths clear of fourth-place finisher Awesome Road, is pointing to the Arkansas Derby, trainer Robert Medina said after the late Arrogate’s son made his 3-year-old debut Saturday.

“He’s not going to run in the Rebel because I really want to run him a mile and an eighth in his next start, so I would say he’s just going to wait for the last one (Arkansas Derby),” Medina said. “Today, that would be my guess.”