CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Mystik Dan will become the first-ever Kentucky Derby winner to race at Colonial Downs when he competes Saturday in the $1 million Arlington Million at the track in New Kent. The day will feature three former Kentucky Derby winning jockeys and over $2.8 million in prize money over 12 races.
It will be the first turf race for Mystik Dan, who won the 2024 run for the roses by a nose, edging out Sierra Leone and Forever Young in the first three-horse photo finish at Kentucky since 1947.
“I think a good horse runs on about any surface,” said Ken McPeek, trainer for Mystik Dan. “It’s another good race and an opportunity to prove how special a horse he is.”
Mystik Dan was scheduled to arrive at Colonial Downs on Thursday evening after departing from Saratoga Springs, N.Y. that morning. McPeek planned to gallop the horse on the grass course at Colonial on Friday morning.
For Saturday’s million-dollar race, Mystik Dan will be saddled by Brian Hernandez Jr., the jockey who rode him to victory at the 2024 Kentucky Derby.
“I’m big on consistency,” McPeek said. “I think that’s one of the reasons Brian and I have had so much success together. When he rides horses for us, he tends to ride them several races in a row. it gives him a chance to really familiarize himself with horse. timing is everything. knowing the horse i think is certainly worth several lengths every time they run.”
Hernandez will be one of three Kentucky Derby winning jockeys racing in the Arlington Million on Saturday, joining Junior Alvarado, aboard Fort Washington, and Javier Castellano, on Vesting.
Alvarado won this year’s Kentucky Derby with Sovereignty, Hernandez won it in 2024 on Mystik Dan and Castellano captured the run for the roses in 2023 on board Mage.
McPeek has trained horses who have won all three legs of the Triple Crown (Kentucky, the Preakness and Belmont), became the first trainer to sweep the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks in the same year, and trained 2013 Virginia Derby winner War Dancer.
This year, his entrant into the Virginia Derby, Render Judgement, placed second.
Testing Mystik Dan, an easy runner with great balance, on grass is something McPeek said he’s been considering for some time.
“I’ve always had in my head that I wanted to try him on the grass and I thought that at some point in time it would be a surface we’d entertain giving him a run over,” McPeek said. “The timing of it all came up good. He worked really well on the grass here at Saratoga. It all kind of came together. we’re excited about the prosect of proving him on another surface.”
Saturday at Colonial Downs, the tracks “Festival of Racing,” includes 12 total races, including the Arlington Million, Beverly D. and Secretariat Stakes, all graded stakes races.
Integration, the 2023 Virginia Derby winner, is the favorite in the headline race.
The festival also includes a celebration of veterans and military families, live music by former American Idol contestant Grayson Torrence, food trucks, facepainting and a petting zoo.
