10 Pedigree fun facts: Mystik Dan

Mar 15, 2024 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Trainer Ken McPeek advised the match that produced Mystik Dan, adding another layer of interest to his pedigree.

Mystik Dan’s sire, Goldencents, and maternal grandsire, Colonel John, both won the Santa Anita Derby (G1) before finishing unplaced, in their respective years, in the Kentucky Derby (G1).

Progressing on the 2024 trail at Oaklawn Park, Mystik Dan aims to improve on their efforts at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May. His female line, shared with fellow hopeful No More Time, is responsible for five Derby winners spanning more than a century.

Here are 10 pedigree fun facts for Mystik Dan:

1. Goldencents became a sprinter/miler after trying the Derby and Preakness.

A notable juvenile who won the 2012 Delta Downs Jackpot (G3) and placed second in the Champagne (G1), Goldencents booked his Derby ticket at his home track of Santa Anita. The Doug O’Neill pupil captured both the Sham (G3) and Santa Anita Derby, but got burned up by the fast pace in the Kentucky Derby and faded to 17th. Although he was a better fifth in the Preakness (G1), his stamina limitations called for a turnback in distance.

Goldencents went on become a two-time winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) while bankrolling more than $3 million. Runner-up in the 2013 Pat O’Brien (G2) in track-record time at Del Mar, he gained revenge in the same race the next year, setting a new seven-furlong track record himself. Goldencents also placed second in the 2014 Metropolitan H. (G1) and missed narrowly in back-to-back runnings of both the Bing Crosby (G1) and the Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G1).

2. Goldencents has sired a Louisiana Derby winner as well as turf performers.

The leading money-spinner by Goldencents, $2.2 million-earner By My Standards, won the 2019 Louisiana Derby (G2), but wound up 11th in the Run for the Roses. He returned as an older horse, adding the New Orleans Classic (G2), Oaklawn H. (G2), and Alysheba (G2) to his resume while placing in such prestigious events as the Whitney (G1), Stephen Foster (G2), and the “Met Mile” (like his sire).

Goldencents has also sired smart turf performer Going to Vegas, who won the 1 1/4-mile Rodeo Drive (G1) twice; the versatile sprinter Wildman Jack, successful in Grade/Group 3 races on both dirt and turf, including a course record at Meydan in Dubai; and millionaire Mr. Money, a five-time Grade 3 scorer who was beaten only a neck in the 2019 Pennsylvania Derby (G1).

3. A first-crop son of Into Mischief, Goldencents helped put his sire on the map.

It’s easy to forget at this point that leading sire Into Mischief was once a young, unproven stallion standing for a bargain stud fee. Goldencents was a leading light in his stellar first crop that helped Into Mischief to break out of the pack, along with millionaire Vyjack and Canadian champion Miss Mischief.

Vyjack, another participant in the 2013 Derby, likewise found his niche in a different division. Excelling as a turf miler, he set a course record in Santa Anita’s City of Hope Mile (G2) in 2016.

4. Goldencents’s maternal grandmother was a prolific Manitoba-bred.

Goldencents is out of Golden Works, who was more blue-collar than blueblood. Her name refers to her parents, Banker’s Gold and Body Works. Banker’s Gold was a well-bred son of champion Forty Niner, but he failed to make a mark at stud and lapsed into obscurity.

Body Works was an unusually prolific Manitoba-bred who won or placed in 35 of 45 starts. While she spent the bulk of her career at Assiniboia Downs in her home province, Body Works won stakes as far afield as Thistledown and Birmingham.

5. Mystik Dan’s mother was also trained by McPeek.

Mystik Dan’s dam (mother), Ma’am, was trained by McPeek for the first 17 of her 23 starts. She competed in the overlapping border zones of upper-level claiming company and allowances.

Breaking her maiden in a front-running romp at Oaklawn in 2016, she overcame trouble in a last-to-first score on the Ellis Park turf in 2017. Ma’am won twice more after switching barns, on a fast track at Churchill and in the slop at Oaklawn, portending Mystik Dan’s own affinity for the Hot Springs mud.

6. Mystik Dan’s grandsires competed against each other.

Ma’am is a daughter of Colonel John, who actually ran against Goldencents’s sire, Into Mischief, a couple of times. Into Mischief beat Colonel John on both occasions, memorably when they finished one-two in the 2007 CashCall Futurity (G1). They met a year later in the seven-furlong Malibu (G1), where Into Mischief placed second, and Colonel John was fourth in a race that was too short for him.

Indeed, Colonel John had scored his signature win in that summer’s Travers (G1). Earlier on the Derby trail, he captured the Sham and Santa Anita Derby, but could get no nearer than sixth in the Run for the Roses when rallying from far back.

Colonel John, who won the 2009 Wickerr S. on turf in his four-year-old bow, has sired several top-class turf performers – La Coronel, heroine of the 2017 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1); Mirth; and Airoforce, the near-misser in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) before coming back to land the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) at a sloppy Churchill. Colonel John is also the maternal grandsire of 2020 Pat Day Mile (G2) winner Rushie and New York-bred millionaire Bankit.

7. Colonel John’s full brother, Mr. Hot Stuff, won major races over the jumps.

Colonel John is by Hall of Famer Tiznow, the only horse to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) twice, and out of Sweet Damsel, whose sire Turkoman is a champion son of Alydar.

Colonel John’s younger brother, Mr. Hot Stuff, was also good enough to earn a chance in the 2009 Kentucky Derby. He wasn’t as accomplished a contender, however, after thirds in the Sham and Santa Anita Derby, and he crossed the wire a distant 15th at Churchill Downs.

But Mr. Hot Stuff’s true talent was revealed once he switched to a different form of racing – over jumps. His biggest wins came in the 2013 A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase (NSA-G1) at Saratoga and 2017 Grand National Hurdle (NSA-G1) at Far Hills, and he was just collared late in the 2015 Calvin Houghland Iroquois Hurdle (NSA-G1).

8. Ma’am’s half-brother is a champion in Greece, and her “uncle” is Siphonic.

Ma’am is a half-sister to Revamp, a multiple champion in Greece. You can tell his jurisdiction from the race names. Aside from the 2019 Greek Derby, Revamp has garnered the Alexander the Great Cup four times. Other prizes commemorate landmark days in modern Greek history. Revamp has won the past two editions of the 25th of March Cup (the day the Greeks began their war of independence from the Ottoman Turks), and he’s turned a three-peat in the GP October 28th (the anniversary of the day that the Greeks rebuffed Mussolini and commenced their resistance to the Axis powers in World War II).

Revamp and Ma’am’s dam, Lady Siphonica, is herself a full sister to Grade 1 star Siphonic, a rival of McPeek’s juveniles in 2001. Siphonic romped in the Breeders’ Futurity (G2) at Keeneland over the McPeek-trained Harlan’s Holiday (the sire of Into Mischief). Third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) behind transatlantic champion Johannesburg and McPeek’s Repent, Siphonic concluded the season by adding the Hollywood Futurity (predecessor of the CashCall).

9. Lady Siphonica’s sire, Siphon, set the fast pace that beat Cigar in the 1996 Pacific Classic.

Siphonic and Lady Siphonica’s names both derive from their sire, Siphon. A Group 1 winner in his native Brazil, Siphon transferred his form stateside for Hall of Fame horseman Richard Mandella. He compiled a four-stakes winning streak in 1996, culminating in a wire-to-wire Hollywood Gold Cup (G1).

That made Siphon the second choice in the Pacific Classic (G1), where Cigar was heavily favored to extend his historic 16-race skein. But Siphon, pressed by Cigar, set an unsustainably fast pace that took its toll on them both. Siphon’s unheralded stablemate, the 39-1 shot Dare and Go, capitalized in a massive upset that saw Cigar tire to second and Siphon fade further back to third. In the 1997 Santa Anita H. (G1), Siphon led all the way to beat Sandpit and Gentlemen, topping a trifecta of Mandella’s South American celebrities.

10. Mystik Dan’s remote maternal relatives include Black Gold.

Mystik Dan and No More Time share the same great-grandmother (third dam) in the female line, Cherokee Crossing. She’s the granddaughter of classic-winning champions: her paternal grandsire, Pleasant Colony, turned the Derby/Preakness double in 1981, and her maternal grandsire, Conquistador Cielo, crushed the 1982 Belmont (G1) en route to Horse of the Year honors.

Cherokee Crossing descends from the family labeled 4-r, a maternal clan that produced a handful of Derby winners. The first three were Halma (1895), Manuel (1899), and Donau (1910), and the most recent was Monarchos (2001).

The most famous of the quintet was Black Gold (1924), although his female line diverges from the main 4-r branch in the late 18th century. It would be a poignant tribute on the 100th anniversary of Black Gold’s Derby if another member of the 4-r tribe, albeit a more distant one, can wear the roses.