ARCADIA — Santa Anita begins its 90th-anniversary season of thoroughbred racing Thursday with Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan trying to add to his résumé by winning the Malibu Stakes.
Yes, the competition on opening day in Arcadia is so strong that a victory in the main event would enhance the reputation of even the winner of America’s greatest race.
“It’s an ideal race for him,” said Ken McPeek, Mystik Dan’s trainer.
The $300,000 Malibu, a 7-furlong sprint, is the year’s final Grade I race restricted to 3-year-olds, making it an inviting way for a sophomore to cap the current season and vault into the next. Kentucky Derby champions Determine, Spectacular Bid and Ferdinand won the Malibu. Affirmed and Silver Charm ran in it and were upset.
The additional incentive for McPeek and owners Lance Gasaway, Daniel Hamby, 4G Racing and Valley View Farm, LLC, is the chance to add millions to Mystik Dan’s value in an eventual breeding career by showing he has the natural speed to win a top-class sprint on top of the stamina to win the 1¼-mile Kentucky Derby.
“It’s been known to produce stallions,” McPeek said of the Malibu, whose past 15 winners include five horses ranked among North America’s top 50 sires in 2024 (Twirling Candy, City of Light, Omaha Beach, Runhappy and The Factor).
It wasn’t easy to get Mystik Dan to California for the first time in the colt’s career. With no flight available, Mystik Dan made a two-day, nearly 1,900-mile trip from the Fair Grounds racetrack in New Orleans by van, McPeek’s assistant trainer and director of operations sharing driving duties. They made an overnight stop at Zia Park racetrack in Hobbs, N.M., and arrived at Santa Anita on the night of Dec. 18.
“He handled it like a champ,” McPeek said of Mystik Dan, whom he describes as “not excitable, just an old soul.”
Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. and McPeek himself plan to take planes and arrive on the morning of the Malibu, which is scheduled for 2:36 p.m. as the eighth of 11 races on a card that starts at 11 a.m.
Mystik drew post 6 for the eight-horse race.
Since winning the May 4 Kentucky Derby in a photo finish over Sierra Leone and Forever Young, and finishing second to Seize the Grey in the Preakness and eighth behind Dornoch in the Belmont Stakes, Mystik Dan has been on the sidelines for six months. The break was needed after nine races at five tracks – including three wins – in an eight-month span. His 3-furlong, 37⅘-second workout at Santa Anita on Sunday was his ninth work at Keeneland, the Fair Grounds and here since late October.
The Malibu distance doesn’t seem to worry McPeek, who notes that Mystik Dan’s impressive first victory in November 2023 came in a 5½-furlong race.
“Is it tricky?” McPeek said by phone from Louisville, Ky. “Yes. You’re kind of retooling. (But) originally, we almost pigeonholed him as a sprinter. I made a decision to teach him to go longer, to settle himself and rate and then punch. His turn of foot is what won him the Derby, because he’s awful quick.
“Shortening him back up (to a sprint) is a little big of a different approach, in how you gallop him and how far you work him. So it’s a tough challenge. At the same time, he’s a very good horse and I think he’s perfectly capable of doing it.”
Mystik Dan (5-2 favorite on the morning line) could run well Thursday and still lose. He’ll face the accomplished sprinters Bentornato (3-1), runnerup to Straight No Chaser in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and Raging Torrent (9-2), 3 for 4 at 7 furlongs after beating The Chosen Vron in the Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar. The Malibu field also features the promising Senior Officer (5-1), Santa Anita Derby winner Stronghold (8-1), and the Bob Baffert-trained trio of Pilot Commander (6-1), Imagination (12-1) and Winterfell (15-1).
Win or lose, McPeek said, “I’m glad it brings a little buzz to Santa Anita.”
Ninety years after the track’s debut on Christmas Day in 1934, Santa Anita presents what could end up being the best overall card of its Classic Meet, which continues through April 6. (Its Hollywood Meet is April 18-June 15.)
The Malibu is one of six graded stakes Thursday. The Grade I La Brea, the fillies’ version of the Malibu, sees the dazzling Accuracy making her stakes debut against Baffert’s Hope Road and Kinza. The Grade II San Gabriel finds California turf-course star Johannes trying to resume his winning streak after a laudable second to More Than Looks in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. And the Grade II race formerly known as the San Antonio is held for the first time as the Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes in an overdue honor for Santa Anita’s all-time leading jockey.
It could be a difficult season as Santa Anita aims to reverse declines in betting and attendance while adding some cheaper races to try to accommodate Northern California horses displaced by the closure of Golden Gate Fields and the failure of a stand-alone meet at the Pleasanton fairgrounds.
But opening day is good enough for a Kentucky Derby winner.
Now we’ll see if Mystik Dan is good enough to win on opening day.
SANTA ANITA PARK AT A GLANCE
Opening day: Today, post time 11 a.m. for first of 11 thoroughbred races
The season: Classic Meet runs to April 6. Racing Friday-Saturday-Sunday plus Wednesday, Jan. 1, and Monday, Feb. 17. First post 12:30 p.m. most days
More info: santaanita.com