Several top contenders for Saturday\u2019s $500,000 Lukas Classic (G2) turned in their final preparations for the marquee race at Churchill Downs’ September meet, including 2024 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mystik Dan, who breezed a half-mile in :47.60 and 2024 Dubai World Cup (G1) winner Hit Show, who cruised five furlongs in :59.40.<\/p>\n
Mystik Dan, owned in partnership by 4 G Racing, Lance Gasaway, Daniel Hemby III and Valley View Farm, was among the first horses on the track Saturday when training opened at 5:30 a.m. (ET). The Kenny McPeek trainee breezed with jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. aboard while completing an opening quarter-mile in :24.60 and galloping out five furlongs in 1:00, according to Churchill Downs clocker John Nichols.<\/p>\n
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Shortly after, McPeek sent out Sharaf Mohamad Alhariri and Lucky Seven Stable\u2019s Rattle N Roll to work a half-mile. The multiple graded stakes winner, unraced since an eighth-place finish in the Dubai World Cup more than five months ago, recorded a sharp move in :46.80 under retired jockey Robby Albarado. Saturday\u2019s work was his third drill since returning to training, following three-furlong works of :36 on Sept. 6 and :35.60 on Sept. 13.<\/p>\n
Hernandez has the call on Mystik Dan in the Lukas Classic from post No. 5 while Julien Leparoux has the mount on Rattle N Roll from post 3.<\/p>\n
Nearly two hours later, last year\u2019s Lukas Classic winner Hit Show took to the track under jockey Florent Geroux. Owned by Wathnan Racing and trained by Brad Cox, Hit Show enters the Lukas Classic following another victory in the West Virginia Governor\u2019s Cup (L), the same steppingstone he used before his Lukas Classic win a year ago. Oddly enough, Hit Show\u2019s final work prior to last year\u2019s Lukas Classic also was a five-furlong move in :59.40.<\/p>\n
Geroux will be in the irons for Saturday\u2019s race from post 2.<\/p>\n
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All seven contenders for the Lukas Classic are now on-site at Churchill Downs or its Trackside Louisville training center. The final arrival was Winchell Thoroughbreds\u2019 Disarm, who shipped from Saratoga earlier this week. Trained by Steve Asmussen, the four-time winner went a half-mile in :48.60 Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Sep 21, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several top contenders for Saturday\u2019s $500,000 Lukas Classic (G2) turned in their final preparations for the marquee race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9464,69687,69686,11200,69684,16199,69685,24057,3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-151766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-churchill-downs","9":"tag-classic-winner","10":"tag-daniel-hemby-iii","11":"tag-dubai-world-cup","12":"tag-final-preparations","13":"tag-kentucky-derby","14":"tag-lukas-classic","15":"tag-mystik-dan","16":"tag-racing","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}