BY TAMMY A GANTT<\/p>\n
Mystic Lake<\/a> led nearly every point of call gate-to-wire pulling away impressively in the stretch to win by seven and a half lengths in the $125,000 Minaret<\/a> Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 7. By Mo Town out of Salty Soul by Itsmyluckyday, the 2024 Florida Horse of the Year<\/a> didn\u2019t look back in the six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares four years and up.\u00a0<\/p>\n From post 1, the Saffie Joseph Jr<\/a> trainee led the way along the inside down the backstretch after breaking first from the gate. Sandy\u2019s Garden pressed her at the half, putting her nose in front for a moment, before Mystic Lake regained her position, turned for home, and drew off down the lane.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cShe broke very sharp and I felt like I was traveling well throughout, and she sure made a good run,\u201d said jockey Flavien Prat<\/a>, who gave Mystic Lake a little breather on the turn for home and was rewarded with an explosive stretch kick. \u201cI felt like I had horse underneath me, but the first quarter-mile was quite quick and I just wanted to give her a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n That apparently was all Mystic Lake wanted, too.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought she was more fit than last time (the Sugar Swirl<\/a>),\u201d Joseph said. \u201cShe is 3-for-3 now at Tampa and has been a model of consistency. You\u2019re always concerned if she is going to kick in, but when she kicks in you feel pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n Summer\u2019s Comin improved throughout the race breaking fourth and moved up to second in deep stretch, but was no match for the winner. Florida-bred Admiral Hopper<\/a> held a stalking position throughout the race, but was out kicked down the lane hang on to the show spot.<\/p>\n Long Gone Sally<\/a> ran mid-pack the duration of the race and tired in the stretch finishing fourth. Ms. Bucchero<\/a> stumbled from the gate and was never a factor in the race. Sandy\u2019s Garden, who tired late after her early pace duel with Mystic Lake, completed the order of finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mystic Lake paid $3.40 to win.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Now 12 for 22 lifetime, the first-place money of $77,500 raised her career bankroll to $1,537,517.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mystic Lake is owned by Miller Racing LLC, BAG Racing Stables LLC, and Stefania Farms LLC and was bred by Peggy Costanzo who raised the Florida-bred with her husband Tony on their Ocala farm.<\/p>\n Return to the February 7 issue of\u00a0Wire to Wire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BY TAMMY A GANTT Mystic Lake led nearly every point of call gate-to-wire pulling away impressively in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4974,135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-147526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-tampa","10":"tag-tampa-headlines","11":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}