It was a mix of emotions in the Churchill Downs winner\u2019s circle Saturday when 2024 Derby 150 (G1) Mystik Dan dug in for a three-quarters of a length victory in the 1 1\/8-mile Lukas Classic (G2) with substitute rider Francisco Arrieta aboard for the injured Brian Hernandez Jr.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrian helped this horse get here. He really deserved to be on him today and deserves to be on him next time,\u201d trainer Kenny McPeek said. \u201cIn the meantime, Francisco did a good job and with the job he did I think he deserves to ride him back. That\u2019s all assuming Brian won\u2019t be back before the Breeders\u2019 Cup, but that\u2019s out of my control.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Mystik Dan, owned by Lance Gasaway, 4 G Racing LLC (Brent Gasaway), Daniel Hamby III and Valley View Farm LLC (Scott Hamby), earned a career-best 104 Brisnet Speed Rating in the Lukas Classic, one point higher than his figure nearly four months ago when he was victorious in the Blame Stakes (G3) at the Louisville track.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had every reason to get beat (in the Lukas Classic),\u201d McPeek said. \u201cHe got blocked in there but that showed the turn of foot he\u2019s got. Like Francisco said after the race, \u2018He\u2019s like a Maserati.\u2019 He can just press the gas pedal and go.\u201d<\/p>\n
McPeek said Mystik Dan is likely to target the $1-million Breeders\u2019 Cup Dirt Mile (GI) on Saturday, Nov. 1 at Del Mar.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a stallion prospect, I think the Dirt Mile is a really good spot for him,\u201d McPeek said.<\/p>\n
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Another horse that could line up in the Dirt Mile is Wathnan Racing\u2019s Tumbarumba, who scored an upset victory Saturday over heavy favorite Most Wanted in the $335,000 Ack Ack (G3).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew Most Wanted had a lot of speed and was the heavy favorite,\u201d jockey Tyler Gaffalione said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t let him get away too easily on the front end. Luckily my horse jumped away well and took me to a great position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trained by Brian Lynch, Tumbarumba earned a 96 Brisnet Speed Rating in the win.<\/p>\n
The Louisiana-bred gelding finished fourth in last year\u2019s Breeders\u2019 Cup Dirt Mile at odds of 33-1.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Sep 28, 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":"It was a mix of emotions in the Churchill Downs winner\u2019s circle Saturday when 2024 Derby 150 (G1)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[75359,24062,34440,75360,75358,24061,24057,3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-166697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-breeders-cup-dirt-mile","9":"tag-brian-hernandez","10":"tag-brian-lynch","11":"tag-brisnet-speed-rating","12":"tag-francisco-arrieta","13":"tag-kenny-mcpeek","14":"tag-mystik-dan","15":"tag-racing","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166697","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=166697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}