After long layoff, 2024 Kentucky Derby winner returns to racing this week

Quick, who won the 2024 Kentucky Derby?

If you’d asked that a week ago, the answer took a minute.

This week, Mystik Dan has reappeared on horse racing’s radar.

Lexington-based trainer Kenny McPeek’s star pupil will return to the track for the first time in seven months when he races on opening day at Santa Anita Park in California on Thursday.

Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby on May 4, finished second in the Preakness Stakes on May 18, then ran eighth in the Belmont Stakes on June 8 to complete the typically grueling Triple Crown series for 3-year-olds.

After getting a late start to his 2-year-old campaign — debuting Oct. 22, 2023, at Keeneland — Mystik Dan raced twice more in 2023 then three more times in 2024 before the Kentucky Derby.

By the middle of June, the colt was ready for a break.

Mystik Dan skipped the Travers Stakes at Saratoga, known as the Midsummer Derby for 3-year-olds.

McPeek also chose not to race him in the Breeders’ Cup.

Instead, the son of Goldencents spent October at Keeneland, tuning up for his return to racing — which we now know will come in Thursday’s $300,000, Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita.

The 7-furlong Malibu, which goes to post at 5:36 p.m. EST, presents an immediate, but not unfamiliar, challenge for Mystik Dan, winner of three of his nine career starts.

“When he first started racing, we were running him short. We almost pigeonholed him as a sprinter as a 2-year-old because he’s that fast,” McPeek told the Daily Racing Form this week. “I had to teach him to rate, settle, come from off the pace, cruise, and punch. That’s how we managed to win the Derby with him.”

Ridden as usual by Brian Hernandez Jr., Mystik Dan is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in a field of eight 3-year-olds.

Bentornato, trained by Jose Francisco D’Angelo and ridden by Luis Saez, is the 3-1 second choice, followed by Doug O’Neill’s Raging Torrent at 9-2.

Opening day at Santa Anita wouldn’t be complete without a show of force from Bob Baffert, and the Hall of Fame trainer will deliver just that with a trio of 3-year-olds in the Malibu.

Pilot Commander (6-1), Imagination (12-1) and Winterfell (15-1) will put Mystik Dan to the test for the Southern California-based trainer. Winterfell, making his graded stakes debut, has won three races in a row. Imagination finished seventh in the Preakness Stakes.

The Malibu field also includes Brad Cox’s Senior Officer (5-1) and Philip D’Amato’s Stronghold (8-1).

The Malibu Stakes is one of six graded stakes on opening day Thursday at Santa Anita.